Jeremy Corbyn could face a number of resignations from his shadow cabinet over his opposition to the UK joining the US-led coalition campaign of air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria.
The Labour leader wrote a letter to his MPs and explained that he was not convinced by David Cameron’s arguments for expanding the UK’s air strikes to cover Syria as well as Iraq.
Half of the Labour shadow cabinet are believed to support military action in Syria, and some have implied that they have felt pressure from Corbyn to agree with his point of view.
Despite their differences of opinion on the air strikes, Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn said he will not resign and said that Labour MPs could be given a free vote over the issue.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell also called for calm, and denied any disunity in the Labour cabinet.
He tweeted:
“On Syria, can everyone calm down. We’re all simply working through the issues and coming to final decision. Don’t mistake democracy for division.”
