Nick Clegg has this morning added his own voice to those at the top of the Coalition saying they won’t go back to Parliament for another vote on Syria. The Deputy Prime Minister was careful to be clear that he and his colleagues respected parliament’s verdict, and didn’t want to push MPs when they had already made their views clear:
‘We’re not going to keep asking the same question of Parliament again and again. We live in a democracy, the executive cannot act in a way which clearly is not welcome to Parliament or the British people, so we’re not proposing to do so… I can’t foresee any circumstances where we would go back to Parliament on the same question, on the same issue.’
Coincidentally, it is Defence Questions in the House of Commons this afternoon. There’s only one question on Syria on the order paper – from Anne McIntosh, who voted with the government – but there are a number of MPs listed for topical questions who were very vocal. Sir Edward Leigh abstained on the government motion, but made a forceful speech setting out the isolationist case against intervention. Nadhim Zahawi said the vote had let down innocent Syrians, and Bob Stewart said last night that he couldn’t see how Parliament couldn’t discuss Syria again. And there will be a ding-dong between Philip Hammond and Jim Murphy too. It’s set to be a revealing session.
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