Clegg 'can't see second vote on Syria'

The UK's Deputy Prime Minister today said he “can’t foresee any circumstances” where there would be a second vote on military action in Syria.

Nick Clegg spoke after London Mayor Boris Johnson said fresh evidence against the Assad regime could allow the Government to go back to Parliament.

US secretary of state John Kerry has revealed the United States has evidence of sarin gas use after testing samples of hair and blood and insisted he is confident that Congress will back military action when it is put to a vote next week.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has ruled out the use of British force following a humiliating defeat in the Commons but the prospect of Parliament revisiting the issue was raised following US president Barack Obama’s announcement that he is seeking congressional support for a punishment strike.

But Mr Clegg said: “We’re not going to keep asking the same question of Parliament again and again. We live in a democracy, the executive cannot act in a way which clearly is not welcome to Parliament or the British people, so we’re not proposing to do so.”

He added: “I can’t foresee any circumstances that we would go back to Parliament on the same question, on the same issue.”

Mr Johnson has become the latest figure to suggest that British forces could still be deployed following the atrocity on the outskirts of Damascus, insisting there was “no reason” why a renewed bid for parliamentary support could not still be made.

Mr Clegg, who was in favour of military action in the Middle Eastern country, also accused Labour of using last week's House of Commons vote to score ``party political points'', after the Government was defeated.

He said: “I don’t think anyone should pretend that deciding to enter into military action to deter the further use of chemical weapons is simple. It’s not simple, it’s not straightforward.

“My own view is that the Labour Party seemed to take this as an opportunity to score party political points as much as rise to the challenge and the gravity of the issue.

“From time to time there are just issues – and this is clearly one of them - where I actually don’t think the British people are particularly interested in political point-scoring at Westminster. They really just want their representatives to look at it in Parliament in a sober and thoughtful way, which is by and large what happened last Thursday in the debate.”

Mr Clegg's comments, at an announcement on free childcare made during a visit to the Mace Montessori nursery in Hammersmith, west London, came after the US said it had uncovered fresh evidence of sarin use in Syria.

The deadly nerve agent is thought to have been behind the chemical attacks in the country on August 21.

Mr Clegg said he remained convinced the Assad regime was responsible for the attack.

He said: “I personally think there’s a case for Britain, on humanitarian grounds, to participate in deterrent action to stop the further use of these abhorrent and illegal weapons.

“But Parliament didn’t agree.”

Asked if Prime Minister David Cameron was wrong to rule out military action in Syria before all the evidence was available, Mr Clegg said: “Myself and the Prime Minister, we were and still are completely convinced it was Assad’s regime that used chemical weapons in that eastern suburb of Damascus the week before last.

“We don’t need any further persuading of that, but we accept that others might. We put our case as best we could.”

He said the Government “respects the will of Parliament” and would not return for a second vote.