Boris Johnson calls for air strikes on Assad regime if he used chemical weapons in Syria

BORIS Johnson has called for new air strikes on the Assad regime if its proved it used chemical weapons in Syria again.

Fresh reports emerged yesterday of a new chlorine gas attack that killed a child on Sunday in the rebel held area of eastern Ghouta.

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MPs demanded action yesterday to enforce a UN demand for a ceasefire in the pocket, under massive bombardment by the Syrian regime.

The Foreign Secretary backed a call from Tory MP Jack Lopresti in the Commons to look again at military action, saying that “many people in this country will certainly share his sentiments”.

Boris added: “If the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) produces incontrovertible evidence of further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime or their supporters, I will certainly hope very much that the West does not stand idly by.”

Mr Johnson also said the public backed US air strikes on an Assad air base last year to punish a deadly chemical weapons attack that killed dozens.

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After mounting pressure from the UN, Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered a “humanitarian pause” in the bombardment of Ghouta.

But MPs ridiculed the move, as it would only see the bombing halted for five hours a day between 9am-2pm.

Backbench Labour MPs united with Tories to insist on action.

Summoning ministers to answer an urgent question on the new Syria slaughter, John Woodcock MP said: “The men and women of Ghouta - the dead children whose faces are altered by chlorine gas - they should not be strewn in the streets in Syria but piled in this chamber and laid at the feet of any government that continues to shrug in the face of this horror”.

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Former Labour shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn added: “In the past, the words of the West have failed to have any impact whatsoever”.

But Labour’s frontbench insisted air strikes would be wrong.

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Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said: “Western military intervention would only prolong and deepen the war”.

No10 refused to comment.