Barack Obama’s decision to seek Congressional approval for military action against Syria, rather than launch immediate missile strikes, has raised the question of whether a second parliamentary vote on UK involvement could be held. This could take place after the UN weapons inspectors have reported on the Ghouta massacre and after the Security Council and Congress (on 9 September) have voted. The irony of Thursday’s outcome is that there was a hypothetical majority for not ruling military action out (Labour’s position) even if there was clearly not one for ruling it in.
But in their appearances on The Andrew Marr Show this morning, both Douglas Alexander and George Osborne stated that a second vote would not be held. Alexander emphasised that Cameron had “given his word to the British people that the UK will not participate in military action in Syria”. He added that he was “intruiged” by Cameron’s decision to rule out military action after the defeat (Labour sources tell me that they did not expect him to do so) but that staging another vote would raise questions over his “judgement” and that this would “weigh heavily on the public and parliament”.
One option would be for Cameron to call Labour’s bluff by overriding these concerns and putting forward a new motion on Syria, but Osborne, who knows the PM’s mind, ruled this out. He said he disagreed with those who argued that a “bit more evidence” would change MPs’ minds and concluded: “Parliament has spoken. The Labour Party has played this opportunistically. The Conservative MPs and the Liberal Democrats who could not support us – they have a deep scepticism about military involvement. I don’t think another UN report, or whatever, would make the difference. Of course I wanted us to be part of a potential military response. Now that is just not going to be open to us.”
For both parties, there is no political benefit to be gained from prolonging the question of whether the UK could participate in military action. A second parliamentary defeat would be immensely damaging to Cameron and he is under pressure from senior Tories to refocus on the domestic concerns that will determine the outcome in 2015. For Labour, there is no political incentive to challenge Cameron’s decision to rule out intervention. Ed Miliband has narrowly avoided a split in his own party (shadow transport minister Jim Fitzpatrick resigned before the vote and I’m told by a party source that at least five other frontbenchers were prepared to do so) and, after a woeful summer, has regained authority as the man who prevented a precipitous rush to war.
As dismaying as it may be to principled interventionists, both parties have decided that the best thing to do is to move on.
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