Syria air strikes debate: John McDonnell tells Labour MPs to 'calm down' as splits deepen

It comes after widespread anger among Shadow Cabinet ministers over Jeremy Corbyn's handling of the party's position on military action in Syria

John McDonnell insisted democracy 'should not be mistaken for division' (PA)

John McDonnell has taken to Twitter to tell his party to "calm down" after Shadow Cabinet ministers expressed dismay at Jeremy Corbyn's handling of the upcoming vote on British military action in Syria.

Just four of 31 front bench Labour ministers back their leader's opposition to Government plans to launch air strikes on Isis targets in Syria but Mr Corbyn has stood firm and is facing an open revolt from shadow ministers after writing a letter to MPs explaining why he "cannot support" military intervention.

Two senior Labour MPs even called on Mr Corbyn to resign as leader over his "unacceptable" behaviour on the issue.

But in the latest episode in the chaos engulfing the Labour party, Mr McDonnell took to Twitter on Friday morning to send a message to his deeply divided party.

"On Syria, can everyone calm down," he wrote. "We're all simply working through the issues and coming to final decision. Don't mistake democracy for division."

Mr Corbyn was forced to cancel a planned visit to the Oldham by-election campaign on Friday to deal with his party's split over the imminent Syria vote.

He will hold another Shadow Cabinet meeting on Monday where they party will make its final decision on its position, with David Cameron expected to call a vote on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

However, Mr Cameron needs to win over a number of Labour MPs to outweigh an estimated dozen Tory MPs who are still opposed to air strikes in Syria and has insisted he wants to win a convincing mandate for action, which means that were Jeremy Corbyn to refuse to give a free vote to his MPs, the Government could fail to win a substantional majority. ​

Hilary Benn, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, is among the vast majority in the front bench team who is in favour of the Government's plan to extend RAF air strikes into Syria.

“There is a clear threat to our citizens and to our nation,” Mr Benn told the Today programme. “We saw the killing of the British tourists in Sousse in the summer. I think the first responsibility of all of us as members of parliament is to take the right decisions to defend the nation. There is also a very clear threat to others."

He insisted he would not resign from the Shadow Cabinet, despite being at odds with his leader of military action and defended Mr Corbyn’s decision to send a letter out to Labour MPs explaining why he was opposed to air strikes.

He said: “Jeremy is perfectly entitled - he is the elected leader of the Labour party with a very large mandate, and he is perfectly entitled - to express to Labour MPs his view and the conclusion that he has reached about the choice it looks as if we are going to face in parliament, as are others.”

It came as the French ambassador in London Sylvie Bermann said it would be "strange" if Britain did not join it in bombing Isis in France and said it was "absolutely essential" that UK MPs backed Mr Cameron's plan for action next week.