LSE Students' Union fails to pass motion condemning Paris terror attacks

Result comes as a new motion to condemn the UK Government's air strikes in Syria is presented to the Union

Emergency workers outside the Bataclan theatre after the attack in November (AP)

The London School of Economics Students' Union has failed to pass a motion condemning the Paris Attacks.

The motion, brought at the union’s general meeting on 4 December, failed to attract the minimum number of students it needed for it to pass.

Just 35 people voted in the online poll, of which 28 voted for and 7 voted against the motion, reading: “Should LSESU Condemn the Brutal Massacre in Paris?” The motion needed 250 students to take part in order for it to pass.

Liam Hill, a former managing editor of the LSE student paper The Beaver, said: "While this is probably more of a reflection on the sad state of democracy at LSESU, it is appalling to see such a lack of support for a motion condemning a terror attack that killed 130 people. It will highlight a sorry double standard if this week’s motion condemning British airstrikes in Syria passes."

An LSE second year student, who did not wish to be named, said "I think it's utterly ridiculous that our students' union is wasting its time condemning anything beyond our control in the first place and I think that it should be implicit that we all condemn terror."

This shock failure comes as a new motion to condemn the decision of the UK Government to bomb Syria has been raised. The top line of the new motion reads: "the Union notes the History of Western Interventionism," before describing the decision to bomb as a display of "symbolic imperial might".

The proposed motion to condemn air strikes in Syria

The General Secretary of LSESU, Nona Buckley Irvine, said:

"There have been other ways that LSE students have shown their empathy through the attacks including memorial services, and the failure of the motion to reach quoracy shows that students didn't believe that a motion was a necessary vehicle for condemnation.

"The Syria motion, in the wake of the Paris attacks, is about standing against a decision taken by the UK Government and it is great that students are using the voice of our Union to pass a vote to condemn the air strikes."

A spokesperson from the "condemn Syrian bombing" motion campaign at LSESU was not available for comment.