Most recently, the British Parliament has authorized UK to take action in implementing airstrikes against IS. After a 10-hour debate, the vote was 397 votes for and 223 votes against. There was a total of 66 members of Parliament (MP) that supported David Cameron's, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, proposal and 153 Labour Party MPs voting against. However, the labour party was considered to be strongly divided.
Although those who supported the airstrikes were outnumbered by 87 votes within their party, the 66 votes consisted 29% of the seats in Parliament. Those that voted for the airstrikes claimed to do so in order to "confront the evil (IS)", which was strongly supported by Hilary Benn of the Labour Party. While those that voted against, mainly voiced by the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, claimed that this would "almost inevitably" result in the deaths of innocent people and that there wasn't enough evidence provided that would give the UK a motivation to stop IS. Corbyn does not wish to be in favor of the airstrikes in fear of repeating Iraq and Libya all over again.
Although Corbyn's party is not the current leading party, the Conservatives. He is in fear that the public opinion of going launching airstrikes against IS would be negative. As previously, during the War on Terror in 2001, the Prime Minister during the time was Tony Blair. He had one of the highest public approval of 93% and was a fervent supporter of Bush's foreign policy. However, he continued his support on the controversial invasion and resulted in a high number of oppositions. Afterwards, Blair's approval rate dropped and resulted a huge loss in seats for the Labour Party in the following term, and for the Conservative party to win later on.
Because of the previous past of choosing to intervene, and with the British government screening information only to those relating Saddam Hussein to Al-Qaeda, it has helped promoted the rise of ISIS during the Iraq War. Tony Blair admitted to these mistakes as well. The Labour Party does not wish to full on support the strikes in order to secure a higher public approval. If the public were to disapprove of the act, it would first blame the leading party, since they hold the most amount of seats. However, if the Labour Party were to full on support this, then the party would lose seats to other parties as well. Furthermore, the rise of right-wing parties, such as UKIP, is a concern over the rise of refugees in Europe. Which was why the Labour Party did not have such a majority voting for the airstrikes, in order to protect their own party's seats in the Parliament.
Although those who supported the airstrikes were outnumbered by 87 votes within their party, the 66 votes consisted 29% of the seats in Parliament. Those that voted for the airstrikes claimed to do so in order to "confront the evil (IS)", which was strongly supported by Hilary Benn of the Labour Party. While those that voted against, mainly voiced by the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, claimed that this would "almost inevitably" result in the deaths of innocent people and that there wasn't enough evidence provided that would give the UK a motivation to stop IS. Corbyn does not wish to be in favor of the airstrikes in fear of repeating Iraq and Libya all over again.
Although Corbyn's party is not the current leading party, the Conservatives. He is in fear that the public opinion of going launching airstrikes against IS would be negative. As previously, during the War on Terror in 2001, the Prime Minister during the time was Tony Blair. He had one of the highest public approval of 93% and was a fervent supporter of Bush's foreign policy. However, he continued his support on the controversial invasion and resulted in a high number of oppositions. Afterwards, Blair's approval rate dropped and resulted a huge loss in seats for the Labour Party in the following term, and for the Conservative party to win later on.
Because of the previous past of choosing to intervene, and with the British government screening information only to those relating Saddam Hussein to Al-Qaeda, it has helped promoted the rise of ISIS during the Iraq War. Tony Blair admitted to these mistakes as well. The Labour Party does not wish to full on support the strikes in order to secure a higher public approval. If the public were to disapprove of the act, it would first blame the leading party, since they hold the most amount of seats. However, if the Labour Party were to full on support this, then the party would lose seats to other parties as well. Furthermore, the rise of right-wing parties, such as UKIP, is a concern over the rise of refugees in Europe. Which was why the Labour Party did not have such a majority voting for the airstrikes, in order to protect their own party's seats in the Parliament.