Cabinet Split As Wes Streeting Clashes With Ed Miliband Over Failure To Bomb Assad

A cabinet split has erupted after Wes Streeting appeared to criticise Ed Miliband for failing to help bring down Bashar al-Assad when he was Labour leader.

Miliband, who is now the energy secretary, ordered his MPs not to vote in favour of bombing Syria in 2013 after the Syrian dictator used chemical weapons on his own people.

As a result, then prime minister David Cameron was defeated and the UK refused to intervene.

Assad remained in power for a further 11 years before being ousted earlier this month.

On BBC Question Time on Thursday, Streeting was asked directly whether he believed Miliband pursued the wrong course of action.

He said: “If the West had acted faster, Assad would have been gone.

“With hindsight, I think we can say, looking back on the events of 2013, that the hesitation of this country and the United States created a vacuum that Russia moved into and kept Assad in power for much longer.”

Streeting added: “Do I think, back in 2013 had we acted, Russia would have been there and Assad would have been propped up for as long as he had? I don’t think that’s true. I think if the West had acted faster, Assad would have been gone.”

However, the health secretary also said “we don’t know is whether the fall of Assad would have led to a better Syria”.

But on Sky News this morning, Miliband insisted he had no regrets about the decision he took.

He said: “Back in 2013 we were confronted with whether we should have a one-off, potential one-off, bombing of Syria but there was no plan for what this British involvement would mean, where it would lead and what the consequences would be.

“I believed that in the light of the Iraq war we could never send British troops back into combat unless we were absolutely clear about what our plan was, including what an exit strategy was.”

In an apparent dig at Streeting, he added: “To those people who say that President Assad would have fallen if we had bombed him in 2013, that is obviously wrong because president Trump bombed president Assad in 2017 and 2018, so he didn’t fall.

“I welcome the fall of a brutal dictator but I think the view that some people seem to be expressing about history is just wrong.”

In a post on X, Streeting later denied criticising Miliband, who he described as “a good colleague”.