Furious Cabinet row erupts after Wes Streeting blasts Ed Miliband for opposing 2013 military action in Syria
A CABINET row has erupted after Wes Streeting blasted Ed Miliband for opposing military action in Syria in 2013.
Then-Labour leader Mr Miliband opposed strikes on Bashar al-Assad’s regime over chemical attacks on his own people.
Mr Miliband, now Energy Secretary, had told his party to vote against PM David Cameron’s military action — in a blow to US plans.
But now Mr Streeting has said: “With hindsight, I think we can say, the hesitation of this country and the United States created a vacuum that Russia moved into and kept Assad in power for much longer.”
The Health Secretary told BBC1’s Question Time: “Do I think that in 2013 had we acted, Russia would have been there and Assad had 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’ve been gone.”
He added: “Inaction is a choice, but so is action.”
Mr Miliband insisted it was wrong to imply the Assad dynasty would have fallen if strikes had gone ahead.
Speaking to Times Radio, he said: “The decision I was confronted with in 2013 was whether we did a bombing of President Assad without any clear plan for British military engagement, where it would lead and what it would mean.
“I believed then, and I do now, that one of the most important lessons of the Iraq war is we shouldn’t go into military intervention without a clear plan, including exit strategy.”
Assad has now fled to Moscow after being toppled by rebels.
No 10 said the Government’s priority is the safety of civilians and a peaceful transition of power.