Corbyn may have to resign if seen as liability, Flynn says

Jeremy Corbyn rejects claims that targeting Islamic State militants in Syria would make Britain safer

Jeremy Corbyn may have to resign as Labour leader if he is seen as a liability to the party, a Welsh MP has said, amid a row over his opposition to air strikes against jihadists.

Newport West MP Paul Flynn said there were "terrible divisions" in the party, and a "gulf" between the leader and his shadow cabinet.

It would be Mr Corbyn's decision to go, he said, not for MPs to throw him out.

Mr Flynn said he opposed any escalation of war in the Middle East.

He told BBC Radio 4's The World at One programme MPs should be given a free vote on any air strikes against Islamic State militants based in Syria.

Mr Flynn said there were "terrible divisions in the party, a gulf between the leader and the shadow cabinet, between the party and country".

"It's a terrible, terrible mess and it can't go on." he said.

"I've said to Jeremy, if you end up like Michael Foot and Gordon Brown and (Ed) Miliband, as a liability to the party, if you are far less popular than the party when you are coming up to an election, then you have got to go, and I believe Jeremy understands that.

"But the only way he can go is if he decides himself to go, because he is there with a huge majority from the party in country.

"If the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party) attempt to throw him out there will be a terrible rift in the party, possibly a split in the party."

Meanwhile Cardiff South and Penarth MP Stephen Doughty told BBC Radio Wales he was "surprised" to learn that Mr Corbyn had written to his MPs saying he could not back air strikes, shortly after a debate on the matter in Parliament on Thursday.

Stephen Doughty says he was driving home when he heard about Mr Corbyn's letter on the news

Mr Doughty, a frontbench spokesman on foreign affairs, said he had heard about the letter on the BBC news while driving home to Cardiff.

Mr Corbyn faces the threat of shadow cabinet resignations after he told MPs that David Cameron's arguments for military action had not convinced him.

"I think we all expect that there's going to be further discussions, obviously, over the weekend and on Monday, and I think that's important," said Mr Doughty.

He added that MPs were facing "very, very serious issues of war and peace" dealing with a threat from a "very dangerous organisation that has threatened and recruited my own constituents here in Cardiff".

Cardiff jihadist Reyaad Khan, one of three men from the city to have joined a group in Syria, was killed by the RAF in an air strike in August.