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Corbyn faces shadow cabinet revolt over Syria air strikes

Jeremy Corbyn has cancelled a visit to a by-election campaign in Oldham amid a shadow cabinet revolt over air strikes in Syria.

Mr Corbyn told Labour MPs that he cannot support the strikes, prompting a furious reaction and resignation threats from the shadow cabinet.

On Thursday, David Cameron urged the House of Commons to back military action against so-called Islamic State in Syria, saying the group posed a "serious and undeniable" threat to Britain.

But in a letter to his MPs, Mr Corbyn rejected Mr Cameron's claim that air strikes would make Britain safer.

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Cameron: 'We cannot afford not to act in Syria'

Prime Minister David Cameron has submitted a document to MPs arguing that Britain "cannot afford" not to extend its military campaign against Islamic State into Syria.

In a letter to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Cameron said: "The threats to our interests and to our people are such that we cannot afford to stand aside and not to act."

It is tempting to see the complexity of the Syria conflict as an excuse to avoid tackling ISIL there,and it is equally tempting to see the threat posed by ISIL as an excuse to avoid facing the realities of the Syria conflict. Neither approach is correct. I believe that we must tackle both the threat from ISIL and the Syria conflict in parallel, recognising the links but understanding the differences. On both, one thing is clear: the threats to our interests and to our people are such that we cannot afford to stand aside and not to act.

So with a political solution to the Syria conflict finally a realistic prospect; with greater international consensus than ever before on the global threat posed by ISIL; with the terrible cost of ISIL’s brutality increasingly being seen on the streets of Paris, Beirut and elsewhere; and with the very real threat ISIL poses to UK citizens, I believe that we should extend our military campaign against ISIL into Syria.

– David Cameron, writing to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee
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Corbyn faces shadow cabinet revolt over Syria air strikes

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