Hilary Benn: Syria shows we must play a full part in the world

And one constant remains. The innate human desire to decide for ourselves and our families how we live our lives. The argument for democracy. This changing world is at times uncertain but it is also full of possibility, and it calls on us to look outwards. that’s why the choice the British people will make when they vote in the European referendum will be the most important decision for 40 years about our place in the world.

Britain’s future lies in Europe. It has given us jobs, investment, growth, security, influence in the world and workers’ rights. Don’t mess with them, Prime Minister, but be assured that if you do, a future Labour government in Europe will restore them. We will not be part of a race to the bottom.

Above all, Europe has brought peace to our continent; a continent that has seen enough graveyards filled with the flower of generations who gave their lives in war. In our party, in our movement, we understand that our responsibilities extend beyond Britain’s shores. From the struggle against Franco’s fascism in the 1930s to the defeat of Nazi Germany; from the fight against apartheid in South Africa to the protection of the people of Kosovo and Sierra Leone, we have always been proud internationalists proud to stand in solidarity with those in trouble and determined not to walk by on the other side of the road.

And so, despite all the progress that humankind has made, when we see the five remaining giant evils of our time – disease, inequality, oppression, war and environmental damage – we have a moral duty to act.

Earlier this summer we looked in horror at that photograph of Aylan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish beach, and our eyes filled with tears. I think we all felt ashamed. This small and precious child had his whole life before him when his desperate family – victims of a civil war that is raging through Syria – stepped into that boat. They had fled from Kobane – a city in which the BBC reports “every building, home, shop and street is ruined”. Each death in this conflict is a rebuke to the world for its failure. We believe in the responsibility to protect, but in Syria no-one has taken responsibility and no-one has been protected.

Nearly half the population are today no longer living where they were when the civil war broke out. Seven and a half million people are internally displaced. Four million have fled the country. This is the great humanitarian crisis of our age.

Britain is second only to the United States in the generosity of its humanitarian aid, but that makes it all the more shocking that David Cameron thought that our nation had already done enough. It was the British people who changed his mind, and now we must change his mind again to offer shelter, not just to families still in the region, but also to the most vulnerable already here in Europe. After all, why is a child now in Greece who has safely made the same perilous journey that claimed little Aylan Kurdi’s life any less deserving of our help than a child still in a Syrian refugee camp? It is a false choice for the Prime Minister to say we shouldn’t.

And it is not just the bloody terror of President Assad they are fleeing. It is also ISIL/Daesh whose brutality is as indiscriminate as it is mind-numbing. In Syria and Iraq, they have killed Muslims and Christians alike, stoned people to death, thrown gay men off buildings, raped girls and women and sold them in markets and cut the heads off brave humanitarians who came to help.

If doing something about this crisis is not one of the great tests of our age, then what is?

There’s been a lot of talk about airstrikes in Syria, but to bring peace, stability and security there we need a much broader, more comprehensive plan. This will require political, diplomatic and humanitarian will too.

This week the United Nations General Assembly is meeting in New York for the world leaders’ debate. The Prime Minister should be straining every sinew to secure a comprehensive Security Council resolution calling for effective action to end the threat from ISIL; the creation of safe zones in Syria to shelter those who have had to flee their homes; the referral of suspected war crimes to the International Criminal Court; increased humanitarian aid to those who have fled to neighbouring states; an international agreement for countries to welcome their share of Syrian refugees and major international effort to agree a post-civil war plan for Syria.

It is no longer good enough for the world to say “this is too difficult.” Instead we must say “this has got to stop”.

Hilary Benn is the Leeds Central MP and Shadow Foreign Secretary. This is an edited version of his party conference speech.