Labour backs strikes on IS in Iraq - but gaffes rule the day

Ed Miliband signalled this morning that Labour will be willing to back UK air strikes in Iraq but not Syria, paving the way for David Cameron to recall Parliament – probably on Friday – to get all-party backing for military action against the Islamic State.

In his clearest statement so far on the issue, the Labour leader told Radio 4’s Today programme that Labour would be open to action against IS in Iraq.

He said a request for UK help in combating IS by the new Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, expected to be made to Cameron at the UN in New York today, would “have to be taken very seriously – yes”.

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The Islamic State, said Miliband, was “a threat not just to the stability of the region but a threat to the UK in the sense that it can harbour terrorism and that is why I think we should be open to that request.”

But Miliband appeared to draw the line at the RAF joining the United States forces in hitting IS targets in Syria.

“The situation in Syria is somewhat different in the sense that it is not a democratic state. We have got the Assad regime.” He repeated Labour’s call for the US and its regional “coalition of the willing” to seek a UN mandate to extend their raids into Syria - despite the fact he must know that Russia, an ally of Syria, would veto such a request.

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Although there will be Tory backbenchers uneasy at sending RAF pilots into Syrian airspace, Miliband’s stance could lay him open to further criticism that he is not up to the job of Prime Minister.

Yesterday’s Memory Man act, when he tried to memorise around 6,000 words for a 68-minute conference speech without notes, fell horribly flat. There were awkward pauses and, crucially, he forgot two chunks of policy – on the national deficit and immigration – that had been included in the draft posted online beforehand.

One line in the draft speech read: “There won’t be money to spend after the next election. Britain will be spending £75 billion on the interest on our debt alone. That’s more than the entire budget for our schools.”

It is easy to see why that would have gone like a lead balloon with Len McCluskey and his trade union brothers who gave Miliband the job four years ago. But in his Today programme interview, Miliband said: “I didn’t deliberately drop it. There was quite a lot I added in and some bits I didn’t say.”

What he did say on the conference hall stage did not go down well with the critics: the Daily Telegraph said Ed had set out his “socialist Utopia” to warm the Labour core voters but offered little to appeal to the floating voter.

Even The Guardian, paper of choice for middle-class Labour voters, gave a front page position this morning to a damning indictment of Miliband’s delivery.

Ed himself had billed it as a job application for the post of PM. The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland concluded: “Miliband doesn’t want to be Britain’s senior tutor but its prime minister. With just eight months to go, he doesn’t yet look the part.”

But does Miliband’s bad press – or his continued low personal ratings - really matter? Labour remain on course to win the next general election according to latest polling, however clunky his keynote speech.

And the Labour leader can take comfort this morning from the fact that David Cameron can make gaffes just as embarrassing as his own.

The PM was caught by a TV microphone yesterday chatting to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg about the Scottish referendum result.

“The definition of relief,” said Cameron, “is being the prime minister of the United Kingdom and ringing the Queen and saying, ‘It’s all right, it’s OK.’ That was something. She purred down the line.” Just to make the faux-pas even worse, he added: “I’ve never heard someone tear up like that. It was great.”

Alex Salmond the defeated SNP leader, said Cameron should “hang his head in shame” for sharing details of the private conversation. Quite.