Dianne Abbott: People will tire of 'Cameron's War'

Labour shadow cabinet member Diane Abbott has described the decision to launch bombing raids in Syria as tragic'' and predicted that public opinion would soon turn againstCameron's war''.

In a tweet, David Cameron said that he believed the House of Commons had taken the right decision to keep the UK safe'', stressing that military action in Syria wasone part of a broader strategy'' to deal with the threat from Islamic State (IS).

But shadow international development secretary Ms Abbott - a close ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: This has been a tragic vote tonight and what we should be thinking of is the people of Raqqa when those bombers fly over them in the next 48 hours''.

Despite the decision of dozens of Labour MPs to vote with the Government in favour of air strikes, Ms Abbott insisted that the bulk of the party supported Mr Corbyn's opposition to military action.

The vast majority of the Labour Party, the majority of Labour MPs and a substantial number of shadow cabinet members are in the same position as Jeremy,'' she said.

And I think public opinion very soon will tire of Cameron's war.''

Ms Abbott denied that Labour MPs who backed air strikes in the free vote would face retribution, saying: There will be no question of people being punished or marginalised because of the way they spoke tonight.''

Conservative MP John Baron, whose amendment opposing air strikes was defeated, said more than 200 MPs had expressed their concern at the Government's lack of an exit strategy and doubts over the claim that 70,000 local troops were available on the ground.

There are still lots of questions unanswered,'' Mr Baron said.

The task for the Government now is to put this strategy into place, because I am not quite sure they have it.

If you look at our previous interventions, our previous errors, there was one common denominator - a lack of a strategic plan that sees you through to the end, including an exit strategy, and lack of local knowledge. I'm afraid this looks very similar.''

Scottish National Party deputy leader in Westminster Stewart Hosie said the Government case had shown a lack of strategy for winning the peace and no plan at all for stabilisation and reconstruction''.

Mr Hosie said: Although the Government won the vote, they didn't answer a single one of the fundamental questions.

There were many, many, many things we could have done that didn't involve actually going to war in a way - in the absence of a plan for exit - which may well end up being a bigger problem.''

Hadi al-Bahra, who until earlier this year was president of the National Coalition for the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, hailed the result of the vote.

Mr al-Bahra told Newsnight: Thank God, I think they took the right decision, although it was late. But coming late is better than not coming at all.

They acted responsibly and wisely and we hope to have a successful campaign combating terrorism and extremism in the area.''

Asked if he accepted Mr Cameron's figure of 70,000 opposition fighters on the ground, Mr al-Bahra said: Yes, we have moderate forces on the ground ready to fight Isis.

We have already been fighting Isis, we have fought Isis since 2013 without receiving the proper assistance from the international community.

We have been through this battle alone. We fought two fronts - one front against the tyranny of the Assad regime and the second front against Isis. So now we are ready to continue our fight, but it has to be an organised fight, it has to be assisted by the international community.''

• Local News