Antoinette Sandbach position on Air Strikes

Ed: We received this statement from the office of Antionette Sandbach, Member of Parliament for Eddisbury, regarding the Vote on air strikes in Syria which took place on Wednesday in the House of Commons. Whether for or against we thought Audlem Residents should understand her thoughts.

I have read every single email that has been sent to me by constituents, I have attended every briefing that has been held in Westminster and have considered all the other evidence that has been available.

The question I have asked myself is "if Paris had happened in Chester with the attack masterminded from Raqqa and I had voted against a combined military, national security, diplomatic and humanitarian plan, would I have acted in the best interests of my constituents?"

I believe the answer to that question is no.

I realise that there are many different views on this issue and that inevitably there will be others that disagree with my stance, however I have to cast my vote on what I believe to be the best interests of my constituents and supported the motion.

The barbaric and murderous intention of ISIL/Daesh has been clear for a number of years with beheadings, rapes and mass murder of civilians wherever they operate. The primary duty of the UK is to keep its citizens safe.
The Paris attacks demonstrate terrorism organised and masterminded from Raqqa.

The clear purpose of the airstrikes is to degrade Daesh's ability to operate in Syria and to hit their supply lines and to stop their ability to finance their operations by illegally selling Syrian oil. We are already taking similar action in Iraq which has led to local Iraqi and Peshmerga ground forces retaking and holding ground from Daesh, with virtually no civilian casualties of the UK airstrikes there due to the unique Brimstone technology.

There are no easy answers in this region but it is clear that precision airstrikes are part of a strategy that includes a long standing UK commitment to humanitarian assistance in the region, as well as intensive diplomatic efforts which have seen a number of Arab states as well as Russia, France the US and others come together in the Vienna process.

7 Daesh plots to cause devastating loss of life in the UK have been disrupted this year and we have been clear targets for Daesh.

This has not been an easy decision, but my decision to support the motion is based on the clear plan agreed in the Vienna process, the support from the UN to tackle the barbaric operations of Daesh and the commitment to UK action which is focused on diplomatic, humanitarian, military and national security issues. It is only the work of our security forces which have stopped a Paris style attack happening here and it is right that we act against Daesh wherever they are based in Syria.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.