Labour leader Ed Miliband confirms support for UN resolution on ISIS

At the Labour party conference in Manchester, the party’s leader Ed Miliband confirmed his support for a UN Security Council resolution regarding military strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria. Following US led airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria overnight; Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to make a statement to outline whether Britain would support military airstrikes.

During the Labour party conference, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Jim Murphy MP said his party did not want to see “boots on the ground” in Syria and Iraq. As news of the airstrikes filtered through the conference, Shadow Middle East Minister Ian Lucas MP told a meeting this morning that Britain should do what it can to support the Kurdistan regional government in the fight against Islamic State.

Reports emerged that parliament might be recalled to vote on British action in Syria and Iraq. Ed Miliband said that the Labour party was a party of “internationalism” and said that before Britain could back any military action on Syria and Iraq against ISIS there would need to be UN support for it.

In calling for a UN resolution Miliband has effectively blocked Britain from supporting military action, indicating that any parliamentary vote will only be supported by the Labour party once the UN are on board.

Miliband also used his conference speech to say he would “fight, with every fibre in my being, to get a two state solution”. Miliband declared that a solution for Israel and Palestine would be a “very important task for the next Labour government”.