Jeremy Corbyn has attempted to dampen a bitter row with Labour MPs and his own shadow cabinet by saying he would authorise lethal force against terrorists if it was "proportionate and strictly necessary".
The Opposition leader stressed there were "clear dangers to us all in any kind of shoot-to-kill policy" on the streets of Britain.
But, in a report to Labour's ruling NEC, he said he supported taking whatever actions were "required to save life in response to attacks of the kind we saw in Paris".
Mr Corbyn's comments came after he was savaged by senior colleagues and backbenchers over his approach to the terrorist threat.
In a series of interviews yesterday, Mr Corbyn questioned the legality of the US drone strike which killed Mohammed Emwazi - known as Jihadi John - ruled out a free vote on extending RAF air strikes against Islamic State (IS) into Syria, and warned that a "shoot-to-kill" policy could be "counter-productive".
A number of MPs vented their anger at the positions during a stormy meeting of the parliamentary party last night - before shadow foreign secretary Mr Benn surfaced to make clear Mr Corbyn had not been setting out Labour policy.
"I can't answer for Jeremy," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "All I can say is what is the position of the party - the long-standing position in the United Kingdom.
"There are procedures - it has got to be reasonable, it has got to be proportionate, but you have got to protect human life.
"These are split-second decisions that the police and, in certain circumstances, the armed forces have to take. But you have to protect people. Our policy remains the same."
Mr Benn also defended last week's drone strike on Emwazi - which was carried out with UK assistance - as "right".
"There is no doubt that he took part in the killing of a number of hostages, including David Haines and Alan Henning, he presented a real threat, and therefore it is right in those circumstances to take the action that was taken by the Americans, with British support, because there was no realistic prospect of him being apprehended," he said.
Mr Benn twice refused to say whether he would resign if Mr Corbyn went ahead with a planned appearance at the Stop the War rally next month.
He said the organisation had been "wholly wrong" to put out a comment on Twitter saying Paris "reaps the whirlwind of Western support for extremist violence in the Middle East".
"This is not the fault of the French and I am glad that tweet was deleted. It is the fault of the attackers. They represent a threat to all of us and we have to take effective action," he said.
Senior Labour figures queued up to take swipes at Mr Corbyn and Stop the War in the Commons after David Cameron delivered a statement on the Paris attacks.
Former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie asked the Prime Minister: "Shouldn't it be immediately obvious to everyone that the police need the full and necessary powers, including the proportionate use of lethal force if needs be, to keep our communities safe?"
Emma Reynolds, who quit as shadow communities secretary when Mr Corbyn won the leadership, said: "Does the Prime Minister agree full responsibility for the attacks in Paris lies solely with the terrorists and any attempt by any organisation to somehow blame the West or France's military intervention in Syria is not only wrong, disgraceful, but also should be condemned?"
Shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden added: "Can I ask the Prime Minister to reject the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to what we in the West do? Does he agree with me that such an approach risks infantilising the terrorists and treating them as children when the truth is they are adults entirely responsible for what they do.
"No one forces them to kill innocent people in Paris or Beirut and unless we are clear about that we will fail even to be able to understand the threat we face let alone confront it and ultimately overcome it."
The series of contributions won noisy cheers on the Tory benches.
In his report to the NEC, Mr Corbyn said: "As we have seen in the recent past, there are clear dangers to us all in any kind of shoot-to-kill policy. And we must ensure that terrorist attacks are not used to undermine the very freedoms and legal protections we are determined to defend. But of course I support the use of whatever proportionate and strictly necessary force is required to save life in response to attacks of the kind we saw in Paris."
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