Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said she is prepared to listen to the case put forward by David Cameron for extending British airstrikes against Isis from Iraq to Syria.
The Scottish National party voted unanimously to oppose UK military action in Syria at its conference in Aberdeen last month, where Sturgeon said airstrikes would only add to the “already unimaginable human suffering” in the region rather than help to bring it to an end.
She said on Thursday: “I’m not yet convinced the case for airstrikes has been made. That is not to say I will not listen to the case that David Cameron will make.”
On Tuesday Cameron promised to publish a comprehensive strategy on Syria in the form of a written response to a report by the foreign affairs select committee, which concluded that the government had failed to make the case for extending airstrikes.
The prime minister could publish the reply upon his return from the opening of climate change talks in Paris on Tuesday next week, depending on the progress made in discussions between Russia and the west on the best approach to combating Isis.
It is thought that 15 Labour MPs are determined to vote for airstrikes, though more may be willing to defy a Labour whip, while 15 Tory MPs might vote against action. The position of the SNP’s 56 MPs on the issue could therefore be crucial to the outcome of a vote in the Commons.
Sturgeon said in an interview with BBC Scotland: “Syria, and I know David Cameron understands this, is a horrendously complex situation and it is not a case of Isil against everybody else. We have a complicated, multi-layer civil war going on in Syria as well as the threat that is posed by Isil so I think there are some tests that require to be passed in order for the case for airstrikes to be made.
“I think it is incumbent on the prime minister, if he is going to bring forward a proposal for airstrikes to the House of Commons, that he makes that case and that he addresses these key points that are not just being raised by the SNP but by the foreign affairs committee in the House of Commons itself.”
Labour’s former home secretary David Blunkett has urged his party to change its position and back the extension of airstrikes to Syria. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it would be very wise, if they’ve got any statecraft at all, if the leadership of the Labour party gave people a free vote.”
