Mr Rylance, film-maker Ken Loach and comedian Frankie Boyle were among signatories to an open letter handed in at Downing Street urging Mr Cameron to keep British forces out of the air war on Syria.
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A free vote would clear the way for Mr Cameron to call a vote on air strikes as early as Wednesday with confidence that he will obtain the “clear majority” which he has said is needed.
Another close all of Mr Corbyn, shadow chancellor John McDonnell, however backs a free vote. Prime Minister David Cameron is leading the push for bombing. “I will make up my mind in due course”, he told the BBC.
However, Corbyn’s Labour Party, which has not announced its position on Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans, is publicly divided on the issue.
He said: “I want on these sort of issues an unwhipped vote, because they are above party politics”.
Ahead of a meeting of the shadow cabinet where a collective position is expected to be agreed, Sky News takes a look at where Labour’s frontbench stands on the issue.
Asked whether Labour MPs – dozens of whom are thought to be considering supporting action – would be given a free vote, Mr Corbyn said: “No decision has been made on that yet, I am going to find out what MPs think”. Not in recent memory has a British political leader been so widely supported by the party membership and so widely pilloried by his senior colleagues.
Corbyn said there would be a decision as a party on opposing airstrikes and he will then decide whether to impose the whip on MPs.
Britain’s defence minister on Sunday said the government was intensively lobbying opposition Labour lawmakers to support airstrikes in Syria as efforts mount to force a vote next week.
Shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray has warned Mr Corbyn’s own history of rebelling against the Labour whip as an MP could come back to haunt him.
According to Labour, there were 107,875 responses, of which 64,771 were from full individual party members.
The government has insisted it will hold a vote on air strikes only if it is certain it has the clear support of the Commons, which means winning the backing of many Labour MPs.
His comments were in stark contrast to the shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn who said Mr Cameron had set out “compelling arguments” for Britain to join other members of the US-led coalition in extending air strikes against IS into Syria.
Leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was overwhelmingly voted by party members to lead Britain’s Labour Party in September, is being attacked by some Labour parliamentarians for his stance against proposed airstrikes in Syria, going as far as threatening to resign.
The Labour leader said a bombing campaign over Raqqa, the center of operations for Daesh, could lead to huge civilian casualties.
“I don’t think this is the way to support our friends in France”, Rylance, star of Wolf Hall and Bridge of Spies, told reporters.
She added: “It’s a matter for the leader what the whipping will be, but we are a party of government and a party of government has to have a position on matters of peace and war”.
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If he allows a free vote, perhaps half his shadow cabinet and around 60 Labour MPs may vote for air strikes.
