Syria vote: Labour rebel slams “unpleasant tactics” of Corbyn’s office

From the Centre Right’s perspective, tonight’s Labour rebellion risks being a top-heavy rump. It will have big names (though none of them command the sort of weight that, say, Denis Healey commanded in the 1970’s) but not the numbers once hoped for.

This raises the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn’s critics looking like a remote elite. It’s bad branding, could make them more vulnerable to being picked off and marginalised. And the political terrain they’ve ended up fighting on is, to say the least, sub-optimal.

Many natural anti-Corbynistas will be voting against military action in Syria. MPs at the heart of “Progress” for years are amongst them.

In part that’ll be influenced by the wave of emails and heavy-duty lobbying from the anti-war camp but there is also a wariness of military engagement that runs through Labour’s history (even if it has not always been the dominant gene).

In the aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan that sentiment has been fuelled. Military engagement is no longer something that can bask in the near memory of clear victories. It is a more ambiguous business with complicated outcomes.

Ann Coffey, MP since 1992 and former Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tony Blair, warned any pro-military strike MPs who were coming under pressure to vote against to be true to their own consciences as the forces that are “bullying and intimidating” them, in her words, would smell weakness and come after them anyway. You can hear her words here:

The Shadow Cabinet balance of opinion now stands at 10 pro-government to 15 anti-government on the Syria motion. That’s a long way from where some pro-war Shadow Cabinet members said it was last week.

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