LONDON, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The leader of British minority party, the Liberal Democrats, echoed the call Saturday by the main opposition Labour Party that Prime Minister Theresa May should have got the green light from Parliament before the air strikes on Syria.
Vince Cable said in a statement: "Riding the coattails of an erratic U.S. President is no substitute for a mandate from the House of Commons. The Prime Minister could and should have recalled Parliament this week and sought the approval of MPs before proceeding."
Cable said the Liberal Democrats stood ready to assess the evidence and objectives for any action and, if it were properly planned and justified, to support a military response.
"The Government's decision fatally undermines the integrity of this mission. It shows a weak Government putting short term political expediency before democracy and in so doing further diminishing the standing of Britain in the world," said Cable.
Britain's main opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday described the U.S.-led military strikes on Syria as a "legally questionable action," saying that the British government should "not taking instructions from Washington."
British Prime Minister "Theresa May should have sought parliamentary approval, not trailed after Donald Trump," said Corbyn. "Bombs won't save lives or bring about peace. This legally questionable action risks escalating further."
"Britain should be playing a leadership role to bring about a ceasefire in the conflict, not taking instructions from Washington and putting British military personnel in harm's way," he said.
"The government should do whatever possible to push Russia and the United States to agree to an independent UN-led investigation of last weekend's horrific chemical weapons attack so that those responsible can be held to account," he said
In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party, said: "Syria's use of chemical weapons is sickening, but the question that the Prime Minister has not answered is how this action, taken without parliamentary approval, will halt their use or bring long term peace."
"Air strikes have not resolved situation in Syria so far -- nothing I've heard persuades me they will do so now. An international strategy for peace must be pursued -- not a course that risks dangerous escalation. UK foreign policy should be set by Parliament, not U.S. President."
In Northern Ireland, the Deputy leader the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Nigel Dodds, said: "The Prime Minister has the full authority, on the basis of all the information at her disposal, to order the type of military action which has been carried out this morning and we reject any suggestion that she was not entitled to do so."
"We are reassured that the military action is strictly targeted and limited in its purpose. Also that it is not about a wider intervention in the Syrian civil war which would, in our view, be counter productive.
There was also support for the action from May's predecessor, the former prime minister David Cameron.
He said: "I firmly support the military action taken in Syria. The barbaric and intolerable use of chemical weapons should never go unchecked. As we have seen in the past, inaction has its consequences, so the PM is right to join forces with our allies to take targeted and appropriate action. Let the message go out loud and clear: the use of chemical weapons is never acceptable."
