It wasn’t just the Tories in the Commons who were unruly last night. Over in the Lords, also recalled to debate Syria, Lords Howell, Tebbit and King were among the prominent Conservatives who said military strikes were not the way to proceed.
One of the most striking speeches came from Michael Ancram, the Shadow Foreign Secretary under Iain Duncan Smith, who now sits in the Lords as the Marquess of Lothian.
Ancram reminded the House that he had wound up the 2003 debate on going to war then, leading the Tories’ backing of it. “I supported Tony Blair’s disingenuous decision to invade Iraq, a support which with the benefit of hindsight I have deeply regretted ever since,” he said in the Lords. “Whatever the legal advice — and I say this as a lawyer and with respect for all other lawyers here — it is only advice.”
