SIR – In the House of Commons, Labour did not back the Government’s motion on the use of force in Syria because we believe that evidence should precede decision and not the other way around.

Labour’s amendment set out a clear roadmap for deciding on possible action in Syria.

First, it called for a UN Security Council resolution to be pushed to a vote in the UN as a crucial way of pressing for the widest possible international support.

Second, we called for compelling evidence to be published about the perpetrators of any attack.

Third, we called for any authority granted by parliament for military action to be time limited, and finally, we called for the potential consequences for the region to be considered.

The Government motion did not contain these key criteria, and because of that we did not vote for it.

Following the vote in Parliament, the Prime Minister made it clear that the UK will not take part in military action in Syria.

That does not mean Britain should wash its hands of trying to bring an end to the conflict in Syria.

Labour asked the Government to put Syria at the top of the formal agenda of the G20 summit in St Petersburg.

The United Kingdom must work with our allies, to ensure the start of a renewed diplomatic initiative to bring together the warring sides in this conflict, to contain the crisis within Syria and minimise its spill over across the region, and address the shameful shortfall in international humanitarian support to victims of this conflict.

This means putting the maximum diplomatic pressure on Russia to bring Assad to the table.

There are no easy options to end the violence in Syria, but a rush to war with military action taken on inadequate evidence, without wider UN support and with no clear plan for dealing with the consequences would have been disastrous.

JOY SQUIRES

Labour parliamentary candidate for Worcester