5 Conservative MPs That Voted Against The Syria Airstrikes

Though David Cameron’s best efforts have concluded that anyone against him is a “terrorist sympathiser”, there is still some scepticism about the Syrian airstrikes. Though many members of the Conservative party believe it’s a naïve view to take that airstrikes will not be entirely effective, there are five veterans of the Conservative party who stand united against the proposal put forward by their leader. 

© Google

John Baron has been a parliamentary member of the Conservative party for his constituency, Basildon since 1997. He was the shadow health minister in 2002, but resigned so that he could then vote against the Iraq war. In an article he wrote for The Guardian, Baron wrote, “I remain deeply unconvinced by the prime minister’s case for intervention in Syria, and will oppose it in the forthcoming parliamentary vote.” Baron was in the army but left in 1988 where after he set up portfolios for charities and then he worked in Rothschild Asset Management.

© Google

David Davis has also been a parliamentary member of the Conservative party since 1997. He works on behalf of his constituency, Haltemprice and Howden. In the last Conservative government, Davis held the post of Foreign Office Minister, where he was responsible for negotiations about EU and with NATO. In an interview with the BBC, Davis said: “Actually we know less about the end of this one than we did about Libya, or we believe we did about Libya, or indeed the Iraq war.”

© Google

Sir Edward Leigh has been a parliamentary MP for his constituency, Gainsborough of Lincolnshire. He got his knighthood in 2013 for ‘public and political service’. Though he is a former minister he did sit as a Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee from 2001-2010. Leigh, in a letter to the Prime Minister said, “I know that the Prime Minister will not want to sat this in public now and eat his words, but w have to co-operate with Russia, Assad and the Syrian army if we are to complete a bombing war and look forward to the reconstruction after that.”

© Google

Peter Lilley is the Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden. Lilley started his parliamentary career as an MP for St Albans in 1983-1997 until moving onto his current constituency, which accounts for two thirds of his old constituency. Lilley started his political career as chairmen for the BOW Group. Peter Lilley believes that his party’s war proposal is flawed in some ways, mostly pointing towards the lack of forward planning with regard to political intervention.

© Google

Julian Lewis has been an MP for the Conservative party on behalf of his constituency New Forest East since the 1997 general election. He was also against the coalition Government’s plan to raise tuition fees. He is now chairman of the Defence Select Committee. When speaking to the Secretary of State, Lewis claimed that there is no way that he can see there being 70,000 “moderates” in Syria willing to fight on the UK Government’s behalf.