MPs have voted to press ahead with airstrikes against the so-called Islamic State in Syria after a pressured 11-hour debate in the House of Commons.
The Government won the motion to go ahead with military action against IS/Daesh targets by an overwhelming majority of 397 to 223.
Prime Minister David Cameron called on MPs to take action against “woman-raping, Muslim-murdering, medieval monsters” who are “plotting to kill us and to radicalise our children right now”.
The BBC report that 66 Labour MPs voted in favour of airstrikes, 152 against, with 11 absent from Tuesday night’s debate.
It’s understood both Worsley and Eccles South MP Barbara Keeley, and Blackley and Broughton MP Graham Stringer both voted against military action.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the deaths of innocent people in Syria were “inevitable” if military strikes went ahead.
“For all members to take a decision that will put British servicemen and women in harm’s way and almost inevitably lead to the deaths of innocents is a heavy responsibility. It must be treated with the utmost seriousness and respect given to those who make a different judgment about the right course of action to take.”
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told the Commons that top intelligence chiefs had indicated that IS/Daesh had “put the UK at the top of its hit list.”
“They hate us for what we are, not what we do. The risks of action are far greater than the risks of inaction.”
Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long-Bailey voted against, as she explained in a letter to resident Christine Beckett, posted on Facebook here: “It is beyond doubt that ISIL’s ideology and actions are horrific and we must take immediate steps not only to halt their progress in the Middle East but also to eradicate the serious and imminent risk to human life in Britain.
“This is one of the most important decisions an MP can make, it is life or death, and I am acutely aware that there is serious risk to life involved whatever decision is taken.
“At the centre of my considerations is the issue of whether the Prime Minister’s case for military action strengthens or undermines our national security and after extensive consideration I am not convinced that the case as it stands will achieve such security in the long term.”
Are you for or against airstrikes in Syria? How would you have voted? Take our poll below.
[yop_poll id=”2″]
