Tony Blair says Theresa May does not need Commons approval for air strikes against Assad

Emilio Casalicchio

Tony Blair has said Theresa May can launch an air attack on the Syrian government without the approval of MPs - as he urged her to stand with the US over the latest chemical weapons attack.



Dozens were killed - including children - and many injured in an alleged gas attack in the Douma district of the Syrian of region Eastern Ghouta, according to evidence from medical groups.

Nato allies have pointed the finger at Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, although the regime and its ally Russia insist he was not behind the attack.

US president Donald Trump is expected to announce a military response in the next 24 hours, with Mr Blair the latest to urge Britain to stand by its closest ally.

And the former Prime Minister - who set the precedent for getting Commons approval for military action ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq - said seeking support from MPs should not be a prerequisite.

“I think in circumstances where the action presumably would be a form of air action rather than ground force action I don’t think strictly it’s necessary,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme.

And he argued: “If the US are taking action we should be prepared to be alongside them...

"If the Americans are prepared to act and are going to act fast I think ourselves - and probably the French government will be in the same position - should be supportive.

“Because it’s important that when chemical weapons are used in this way and the international community has taken a firm position against it that you have to enforce it.”

He added that failure to act would be giving “carte blanche to the regime to do whatever is necessary to retake opposition areas by force”.

And he warned, in the wake of the Iraq intervention which is widely considered to have been botched: “Intervention is extremely difficult, but non-intervention also has consequences.”

Mr Blair’s comments echoed those of former foreign secretary William Hague, who today said a failure to take military action would risk legitimising chemical weapons.

GOOD FRIDAY 'SHIBBOLETH'

Elsewhere, Mr Blair attacked Labour frontbencher Barry Gardiner, who was caught on tape saying the importance of the Good Friday Agreement had been “played up” in the Brexit negotiations.

The Shadow International Trade Secretary described the peace deal - agreed 20 years ago today - as a “shibboleth” as he suggested that a return to a hard Irish border would not lead to a return of paramilitary activity.

But Mr Blair, who brokered the historic peace deal, said: “I don’t know how anyone can say that. It’s the only basis on which you are going to have peace.”

He argued that the big concessions between Republicans and Unionists at the heart of the deal were “not a shibboleth that’s had its time” but were “absolutely fundamental to keeping the peace”.