Labour struggles to talk straight on Syria vote

It’s quite clear what the Tory approach to a vote on British involvement in action against Islamic State in Syria will be: the Prime Minister will set out his strategy for this later this week, warning MPs that they need to choose to be ‘Churchill not Chamberlain’. George Osborne warned this morning on Marr that a second defeat in the Commons on Syria ‘would be a publicity coup for Isil, that would send a terrible message about Britain’s role in the world’.

But Labour’s position is, of course, not clear at all at present. Jeremy Corbyn’s slogan of ‘straight talking, honest politics’ sounds like an aspiration at present. Caroline Flint has just complained on the Daily Politics that frontbenchers are unable to speak with one voice on policies, which is a statement of fact, not opinion. It is not even clear whether Corbyn will give his party a free vote on Syria, or whether he will set a position that is then whipped, and if so, whether that position will be his own position, or the position that his own Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn would prefer.