Theresa May won a Commons vote on the military action in Syria but faced an SNP claim that a No 10 intelligence briefing had been used to “manipulate” certain MPs.

During Tuesday's three-hour debate, the Prime Minister insisted British lives would be compromised if it became illegal for governments to launch military action without the prior backing of MPs.

The Prime Minister claimed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s call for the introduction of a War Powers Act would “seriously compromise” the safety of the nation.

Her remarks came after the UK, the US and France carried out missile strikes on three targets they said were “specifically associated with the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons programme”.

READ MORE: Theresa May denies she was following President Trump's orders to bomb Syria

The strikes on Saturday followed an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Syrian city of Douma 10 days ago.

Mrs May’s win in Parliament came as:

- local media reported that experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had arrived in Douma to establish whether chemical weapons were used there;

- Syrian military leaders confirmed air defence missiles were fired overnight on Monday, although the incident was a false alarm and and no new attack on the country took place;

- Yury Filatov, the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Ireland, said that Russia, the Syrian regime’s principle backer, was losing “the last bit of trust” it had with the west and described this as a “very dangerous development”.

During the Commons debate, Mrs May told MPs: “Making it unlawful for Her Majesty’s Government to undertake any such military intervention without a vote would seriously compromise our national security, our national interests, and the lives of British citizens at home and abroad. And for as long as I’m Prime Minister, that will never be allowed to happen.”

But Mr Corbyn, who has described the Syrian air strikes as “legally questionable” and made clear he would only support military intervention with United Nations’ support, accused the PM of treating Parliament in a cavalier way and of flouting a convention set in 2003 to consult MPs before the prospect of military action.

He told MPs: “I am sorry to say the Prime Minister’s decision not to recall Parliament and engage in further military action in Syria last week showed a flagrant disregard for this convention.”

Mr Corbyn said such a War Powers Act could “specify at what point in decision-making processes MPs should be involved, as well as retaining the right of ministers to act in an emergency or in the country’s self-defence”.

Ian Blackford for the SNP criticised the “failure” of the Government to recall Parliament, stressing it was to be “deeply regretted” that the “only people that haven’t had a voice” were MPs.

His Nationalist colleague, Stewart McDonald, the SNP’s defence spokesman, seized on how certain Labour MPs had been invited to Downing Street for a private briefing on the Syria air strikes by Sir Mark Sedwill, the National Security Advisor.

READ MORE: 'Bind the hands of all future prime ministers to wage war', insists Corbyn

In a Point of Order, the Glasgow MP said: “These briefings appear to have been offered to members of the Labour Opposition not on the basis of privy counsellor status but on the basis of those opposition members who are sympathetic to the Government’s position.

“That leads to concerns that the Government is using intelligence briefings to manipulate Parliament and to bolster its own case for its behaviour on the opposition benches; not on security terms, but on politics.”

The Tories won the vote 317 votes to 256 in an unusual situation where they voted for a Labour motion but the Opposition voted against.

Mr Corbyn ordered his MPs to oppose the motion to show that the party believed Parliament had not fully considered the issue.

But more than 50 of his colleagues rebelled by abstaining.