David Cameron has appealed to Conservative MPs to give him an overall parliamentary majority in favour of military action in Syria by warning them against voting alongside “Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers”.
MPs will vote late on Wednesday after a10-and-a half-hour debate in the Commons.
Amid Downing Street concerns that support among backbench Labour MPs is weakening, the prime minister told a meeting of the 1922 committee that he needed to win the vote solely on the basis of Tory MPs’ support to achieve his goal of securing a clear consensus.
“You should not be walking through the lobbies with Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers,” the prime minister reportedly told the committee.
His remarks, echoing an attack on Corbyn at the Tory conference in October, were confirmed to the Guardian by a senior MP who attended the meeting and came as the Labour leader accused Cameron of adopting a “bomb first, talk later” approach.
In a Guardian article, Corbyn asks Labour MPs to think of the “terrible consequences” of the wars in the Middle East over the past 14 years.
“David Cameron ... knows that opposition to his ill-thought-out rush to war is growing,” Corbyn writes. “On planning, strategy, ground troops, diplomacy, the terrorist threat, refugees and civilian casualties, it’s become increasingly clear the prime minister’s proposal simply doesn’t stack up.
“Cameron’s approach is bomb first, talk later. But instead of adding British bombs to the others now raining down on Syria, what’s needed is an acceleration of the peace talks in Vienna.”
Labour dismissed the prime minister’s attack on Corbyn as a “contemptible and desperate slur which demeans his office”. A party spokesman said: “He clearly realises he has failed to make a convincing case for military action in Syria and opinion is shifting away from him.”
Cameron and Corbyn’s sharp exchanges occurred on the eve of a debate in the House of Commons set to last 10 and a half hours after the cabinet agreed to scrap all the day’s business to allow a vote on Syria. The cabinet agreed a 12-point motion, which incorporated all the main points in a motion passed at the Labour conference in September and would pave the way for the Royal Air Force to extend its airstrikes against Islamic State targets from Iraq to Syria.
Corbyn will respond to the prime minister after he opens the debate at 11.30am. In an unprecedented move in the modern era, the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, will contradict Corbyn by endorsing the military strikes. Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, will wind up the debate before a vote at 10pm.
Meanwhile, the US defence secretary, Ash Carter, announced that a permanent new US “expeditionary” force would operate independently of local troops in Iraq and Syria for the first time. In a significant escalation of the frontline use of American ground troops in the region, Carter told congressional leaders the troops would be based in Iraq but carry out raids across the border.
“It puts everybody on notice in Syria,” he said. “You don’t know at night who is going to be coming in the window.”
Until now, US ground forces have largely been restricted to a “training and support” mission for the Iraqi army and a handful of one-off special forces raids to free hostages.
The German cabinet has approved plans to commit up to 1,200 soldiers to support the international coalition fighting Isis in Syria. The mandate, which requires parliamentary approval, was endorsed by ministers on Tuesday. It is not yet clear when the Bundestag will consider the proposals, but Angela Merkel’s governing coalition has a large majority and approval looks assured.
In Westminster, one senior Downing Street source said shadow cabinet members, such as Benn, the deputy leader, Tom Watson, and the shadow defence secretary, Maria Eagle, were solid in their backing of airstrikes. But the prime minister is understood to fear that Labour backbenchers have been so alarmed by the attacks from Corbyn supporters – and the noticeably harsher tone adopted by the Labour leader – that they will back away from giving their support.
At the start of the week, Labour MPs in favour of airstrikes were confident they had the support of 60 colleagues. About 30 Labour MPs have confirmed either publicly or to the Guardian that they are supportive, while at least 90 MPs have come out against the plans and in support of Corbyn’s position.
But Cameron alienated senior Labour figures who are minded to support the airstrikes. Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “David Cameron’s comments trivialise the decision MPs have to make. MPs from all parties are treating that decision with the seriousness it deserves. The prime minister should retract and apologise for these remarks, which are disrespectful to those MPs who have a different view to him.”
Downing Street was unsurprised when Nicola Sturgeon announced that the 54 Scottish National party MPs would vote against the airstrikes. But it received a boost when the Democratic Unionists and the Liberal Democrats, who command 16 votes in the House of Commons between them, announced their support. Richard Bacon, Andrew Percy and David TC Davies, three Tory MPs who voted against airstrikes on the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad three years ago, told the 1922 committee they would support the government on Wednesday.
A cross-party amendment drawn up by the SNP, which “declines to authorise military action in Syria”, had won the support of 110 MPs by Tuesday night. In the absence of an amendment to the government motion by Labour, which has no official position on the bombing, the SNP will seek to hold a vote on the cross-party amendment. The Commons speaker John Bercow will decided whether to hold a vote on the amendment which would take place before the vote on the government motion.
Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minister, said: “We are seeing an arrogance from David Cameron who believes his ill-conceived plans to add more planes to the 10 countries already bombing Syria will make a difference. Support for this amendment against Syria air strikes is cross-party, and so far has 110 signatories. Of course everyone wants to see the end to Daesh, but the UK government has been running scared from scrutiny on their plans which don’t stack up.”
But Downing Street suffered a blow earlier on Tuesday when a fresh row broke out over Cameron’s claim that there were 70,000-strong moderate forces in Syria prepared to fight Isis, after a senior army general declined to confirm whether those forces included members of Islamist groups.
Lt Gen Gordon Messenger, the deputy chief of the defence staff, told the defence select committee that national security concerns meant he could not say whether any of the 70,000 fighters were members of the Islamic Front and Ahrar al-Sham. Messenger was sharply criticised by the Tory chairman of the defence select committee, Julian Lewis.
Separately, the foreign affairs select committee voted four to three in favour of a motion that Cameron “has not adequately addressed concerns” about military action. However, Crispin Blunt, the Tory chairman of the committee who has said he will support the airstrikes after earlier opposing them, played down the findings, saying no view had been expressed on the merits of the motion.
Government sources said Cameron’s criticism of Corbyn related to his conference speech in which he described the Labour leader as “security threatening, terrorist-sympathising, Britain-hating”. He highlighted the reported remarks by the Labour leader that the death of Osama bin Laden had been a tragedy. The source said Cameron was not suggesting that all MPs who oppose the extension of the airstrikes are terrorist sympathisers.
Corbyn earlier intensified the pressure on Labour MPs to support him by warning that there would be “no hiding place” after the vote for those who had supported military action. He highlighted the bitter divisions at the highest level of the party when he said Benn and other supporters of airstrikes would be guilty of approving the killing of civilians in Syria.
