Countdown to war begins: MPs vote for air strikes on IS in Syria

An amendment to block the airstrikes signed by members from six parties was defeated by 390 votes to 211, a majority of 179.
As the votes were taken, hundreds of anti-war demonstrators chanting “don’t bomb Syria” protested outside the Houses of Parliament.
In the Commons after early, tense exchanges, a senior aide to Jeremy Corbyn indicated the Labour leader was resigned to a parliamentary defeat.
He said David Cameron could “expect to win the vote but he has lost the argument”, claiming MPs and the country increasingly saw the flaws in the Prime Minister’s strategy and were opposed to further military action.
In the debate, the PM urged MPs to "answer the call from our allies" and support taking action against IS terrorists, whom he branded “women-raping, Muslim-murdering, medieval monsters”.
"The House should be under no illusion that these terrorists are plotting to kill us and to radicalise our children right now," he declared referring to them as Daesh, an acronym regarded by some as insulting to the terrorists.
Mr Cameron posed a stark question: "Do we work with our allies to degrade and destroy this threat and do we go after these terrorists in their heartlands from where they are plotting to kill British people or do we sit back and wait for them to attack us?"

But Mr Corbyn denounced the “ill thought-out rush to war” and said the PM’s proposals for airstrikes did “not stack up”.
They would, he argued, "almost inevitably lead to the deaths of innocents" and warned they could also increase the possibility of terror attacks in Britain.
Noting how the “spectre” of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya loomed over the Syria debate, the Labour leader told MPs: “To oppose another war and intervention is not pacifism; it is hard-headed common sense.”
But in a closing speech for Labour, Hilary Benn, said the carnage in Paris could “just as easily have been in London, Glasgow, Leeds or Birmingham and it could still be”.
In a passionate contribution, the Shadow Foreign Secretary made a direct appeal to Labour colleagues, saying the nation was faced by fascists, who held British democracy in contempt. 
“What we know about fascists is that they need to be defeated…We must now confront this evil. It is now time for us to do our bit in Syria.” MPs gave him a rousing round of applause.
During earlier exchanges, Angus Robertson, who leads the SNP at Westminster, urged MPs not to repeat past mistakes.
“Let us not give the green light to military action without a comprehensive and credible plan to win the peace,” he declared.
The Moray MP noted how a Government victory would be won with the support of only two out of 59 Scottish MPs, saying an opinion poll showed 72 per cent of Scots were against extending airstrikes.
But Alan Johnson, the former Labour Home Secretary, supporting the motion, said IS had to be "confronted and destroyed if we are to properly defend our country and our way of life".
However, fellow Tory backbencher John Baron argued: "Without a comprehensive strategy air strikes will simply reinforce the West's long-term failure in the region, generally, at a time when there are already too many aircraft chasing too few targets."

Labour’s Margaret Beckett, the former Foreign Secretary, supporting airstrikes, urged MPs to “consider how we would feel and what we would say if what took place in Paris had happened in London, if we had explicitly asked France for support, and France had refused".
But Philippa Whitford, the SNP MP for Central Ayrshire, insisted everyone had sympathy with the people of Paris yet “that would not make bombing any more effective” and extending airstrikes would recruit more extremists in the Middle East and radicalise more people at home.
Much focus was given to the key issue of ground forces.
Mr Cameron’s defended his contention that there were 70,000 moderate troops in Syria, emphasising how this was the estimate of senior intelligence chiefs.
He said most of the troops were from the Free Syrian Army and there were a further 20,000 Kurdish fighters with whom Britain could also work.
The PM acknowledged the forces were "not ideal, not as many as we would like, but they are people we can work with".
However, Mr Corbyn told MPs it was "quite clear there are no such forces" and only extremists would take advantage of the strikes against IS.

Tory MP Julian Lewis, who chairs the Commons Defence Committee and was against airstrikes, said: “Instead of dodgy dossiers we now have bogus battalions.”
The initial Commons exchanges were marked by several Labour and SNP MPs calling on the PM to withdraw remarks in which he branded opponents of military action “terrorist sympathisers”.
A clearly angry ex-First Minister Alex Salmond demanded Mr Cameron apologise for his “deeply insulting remarks” while Mr Corbyn accused the PM of demeaning his office by using them.
But the Tory leader refused and attracted cries of disbelief when he said: “There's honour in voting for, there's honour in voting against."