Labour
pressure group Momentum has claimed it has "overwhelming support"
from its supporters to launch an anti-intervention campaign and back Jeremy
Corbyn amid a party row over UK air strikes on Syria. But the left-wing
organisation told IBTimes UK it has not balloted its supporters on the issue.
James
Schneider, a spokesman for the group, said: "Momentum arises out of
Corbyn's leadership campaign, which decisively won the biggest mandate in any
Labour leadership election on the basis of three pillars – a new politics, a
new economics and a new relationship with the world.
.
It's on the
basis of that third pillar that we have put out our call to our supporters and
others to ask their MPs to vote against bombing Syria.
"We are
still setting up our full governance structures which will enable us to
democratically decide our direction. But in many of the groups which have been
set up, it is the overwhelming
consensus that
[David Cameron] has not made the case for bombing Syria."
The comments
come after Momentum wrote to its supporters and asked them to lobby their MPs
over possible air strikes by the UK on Syria. The anti-interventionist call
followed Corbyn's letter to Labour MPs, which explained that the former Stop
the War Coalition chair would not back British military intervention against
Islamic State (Isis) in Syria.@PEOPLESMOMENTUM BY WHAT MECHANISM DID YOUR
MEMBERSHIP DECIDE TO REACH THIS VIEW?
— Hopi Sen
(@hopisen) November 27, 2015
"The
prime minister did not set out a coherent strategy, coordinated through the UN,
for the defeat of Isis. Nor has he been able to explain what a credible and
acceptable ground force could retake and hold territory freed from Isis control
by an intensified air campaign," the Labour leader wrote.
The letter
triggered a row at the top of Labour as shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn
argued there was a "compelling" case for UK air strikes on Syria.
Corbyn has also faced opposition among his own ranks after he hinted he would
not give Labour MPs a free vote on the issue.
The row comes
ahead of a shadow cabinet meeting on 30 November, where Labour's top team is
expected to debate the issue, and ahead of the Oldham West and Royton
by-election on 3 December.
Jim McMahon is
the bookies' favourite to win back the Greater Manchester seat for Labour over
Ukip's John Bickley and Momentum told IBTimes UK it expects to send "five
coach loads" of activists to campaign for the Oldham Council leader.
Meanwhile, the
most recent opinion poll from YouGov showed the public backs Prime Minister
David Cameron's call to bomb Syria. The survey, of more than 1,600 voters
between 23 and 24 November, found 59% of people supported such an intervention
and only 20% of respondents disapproved of it.
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