Cameron making up Syria policy 'on the hoof' - senior Tory

Defence select committee chair Julian Lewis says prime minister’s strategy for fighting Islamic State is incoherent



A senior Tory has accused David Cameron of making up Syria policy “on the hoof”, as the prime minister gave his clearest indication yet that he wanted to extend the British air campaign against Islamic State.

Julian Lewis, the chairman of the defence select committee, described the government’s strategy for combating Isis as incoherent and called on Cameron to present a more considered strategy to parliament.

In a keynote speech in Birmingham on Monday, Cameron is expected to set out the government’s five-year strategy for tackling extremist ideology, warning British would-be jihadists that Isis would “brainwash you, strap bombs to your body and blow you up”.

Speaking to US television on Sunday, Cameron said the UK should “step up and do more” in the fight against Isis in Iraq and Syria.

Lewis indicated that Cameron would have a tough job persuading MPs to endorse air strikes against Isis in Syria, rejected by a 2013 vote in the Commons.

Speaking to the BBC’s the World this Weekend, Lewis said: “I think how I vote [on whether the UK should join US-led air strikes over Syria] will depend on whether the prime minister, instead of making this up on the hoof as has been the case I’m afraid up till now, presents parliament with an integrated strategy, approved jointly by the heads of the armed forces, as something that could produce a decisive result.”

Former SNP leader and the party’s foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond accused Cameron of “breathtaking arrogance” and argued that the case for bombing Syria had simply not been made”.

“Just two days after revelations that UK military personnel have been involved in air strikes in Syria without the approval of Parliament, he is determined to push for further action without first providing answers to serious questions that must be addressed,” said the former first minister of Scotland.

“And the prime minister casually refers to requiring the approval of ‘my parliament’ - when a parliament is for the people, and the House of Commons rejected bombing in Syria two years ago.”

Sounds about right. Camoron has a butterfly mentality and makes everything up as he goes along. The only thing consistent with the muppet are the words, "Let me be quite clear on this." And he only uses them to give himself time to think up his latest answer.