George Osborne: We share responsibility for what is happening in Syria

The former Chancellor, George Osborne, has told MPs they were deceiving themselves if they thought they did not have some responsibility for what has happened in Syria.

Mr Osborne was speaking in an emergency debate about the situation in Aleppo. He said the tragedy in Aleppo didn't "come out of a vacuum, it was created by a vacuum, a vacuum of Western leadership". He said he took his share of responsibility for that and said parliament should, "take its responsibility because of what it prevented being done".

He said the consequences of not intervening in Syria included the rise of fascism in Eastern Europe, the creation of extremist political parties in the West.

The Conservative MP went on to say that Russia, "for the first time since Henry Kissinger kicked them out of the Middle East in the 1970s is back as the decisive player in that region. That is the price of not intervening".

He warned MPs: "Let's be clear now, if you don't shape the world you will be shaped by it."