DOZENS of people gathered in York’s St Helen’s Square on Sunday afternoon in a rally against the Syrian air strikes.

Organised by local group York Against The War, at least 40 people gathered for the demonstration, including group members and other supporters.

It comes after the UK joined the US and France in air strikes in Syria in the early hours of Saturday.

Graham Martin, from York Against The War, believes a lot of the people attended the rally in response to Parliament not having a chance to vote on UK military action in Syria.

He said: “When we started to organise this we were worried that we were going to get dragged into another catastrophic confrontation, both within Syria and with the Russia dimension to it as well.

“Obviously things have been overtaken.

"I think a lot of people will be here because they feel democracy has been overridden and Theresa May hasn’t gone to Parliament.

“It’s very clear that a lot of people in Britain are very sceptical about the possibility of a positive effect from bombing.

“I think what should have happened is there should have been a parliamentary vote. I think in the longer term there needs to be a lot more talking to try and figure out how we resolve this immensely complicated issue.”

Another demonstrator, Gwen Vardigans, added: “I am against bombing in Syria, I was against Iraq. I’m not in favour of any sort of armed conflict to the extent that we’ve had.

“If she was going to contemplate this, Theresa May should have consulted her MPs.”

Kevin McCaighy also attended the rally. He said: “I’m here because we see the same mistakes over and over again. We’re condemning our government and France and the US’s actions.”