Syria air strikes: Former England footballer Stan Collymore quits Labour party for SNP after vote

He only re-joined Corbyn's party a few months ago

Collymore is now a member of the Scottish National Party (Getty Images)

Stan Collymore has left the Labour party to join the Scottish National Party after the House of Commons voted in a majority to launch air strikes in Syria.

Taking to Twitter following the vote announcement, the former England footballer shared a screengrab of his membership payment confirmation saying it was “time to change”.

He also expressed frustration at having to cancel his Labour party membership after only-rejoining a couple of months ago.

In a reply to a follower, he said he was "truly gutted" with the vote decision and said the Labour party was now "Tory-lite".

All but two SNP MPs voted against the air strikes and several MPs such as Mhairi Black were particularly outspoken on the issue, criticising the celebratory cheers heard after the result was announced.

On the other hand, the Labour party was divided on the issue with the majority (152 MPs) supporting leader Jeremy Corbyn’s opposition to the strikes and 66 siding with the government and Shadow Foreign Secretary, Hillary Benn.

Collymore is known for being outspoken on Twitter and previously found himself embroiled in arguments over politics with fellow footballers Rio Ferdinand and Karl Henry.

The argument began after the talkSport pundit criticised Henry for tweeting his support for the Conservative party in March. Ferdinand then waded in backing his Queens Park Rangers teammate.

At the start of the year, Collymore temporarily deleted Twitter in protest over the apparent lack of action taken over trolls he claimed racially abused him.