The Commons is due to vote on military action at 10pm tonight with more than 150 MPs wishing to speak in a marathon debate.
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Earlier, he kicked off the debate by urging MPs to “answer the call” from allies like France and the USA, adding that bombing the “medieval monsters” of IS was “the right thing to do”.
“Let us be clear: people will not return to Syria if part of it is under the control of an organisation that enslaves Yazidis, throws gay people off buildings, beheads aid workers, and forces children to marry before they are even ten years old”.
He said public opinion was moving against what he called an “ill thought-out rush to war”.
He told MPs the forces were “not ideal, not as many as we would like, but they are people we can work with”. “We need to have respect for each other’s views on this”.
Prime minister David Cameron secured the strong mandate he had sought with 397 MPs voting in favour and 223 against, a majority of 174, after more than 10 hours of passionate and often angry debate.
That has sparked a backlash, particularly in the opposition Labour Party, whose leader, Jeremy Corbyn, opposes any expansion of the military role.
“We are now carrying out air strikes in Iraq against them, at the request of the Iraqi government”.
But critics of the plan disputed claims that 70,000 moderate fighters would be able to take on IS, also knowns as Isis, Isil and Daesh, on the ground.
Although technically he is not obliged to hold the vote and could make a unilateral decision to instruct Britain’s military to undertake the airstrikes.
Mr Corbyn described those voting with the Government as die-hard supporters of the war.
“The question before the House today is how we keep the British people safe from the threat posed by ISIL”.
At a rally in Exhibition Square protesters urged MPs not to back David Cameron’s plans to extend British air strikes from Iraq.
“The prime minister’s attempt to brand those who planned to vote against the government as terrorist sympathisers both demeans the office of the prime minister and I believe undermines the seriousness of deliberations we are having today”. This was despite a social media campaign by anti-war activists that was so intense that Corbyn intervened on Facebook on Wednesday to warn that there was no place in the Labour Party for bullying.
Shadow cabinet members including shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn, shadow Culture Secretary Michael Dugher, and former Labour front-benchers Yvette Cooper, Alan Johnson, Mary Creagh and Dan Jarvis are all backing the aerial bombardment of IS. “We must not use past mistakes as an excuse for indifference or inaction”.
The email she posted on Facebook said: “If the vote of no confidence is carried the MPs can then limp on until their selection at the next General Election when they will be deselected”.
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“It’s wrong for us here in Westminster to see a problem, pass a motion and drop the bombs pretending we’re doing something to solve it. That’s what we did in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya”.
