Sky News understands that Downing Street will now approach Labour MPs for briefings over the weekend to try to shore up support.
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The Prime Minister will set out the case for RAF jets and drones to strike at targets in Syria, telling MPs that IS must not be allowed a “safe haven” in which to grow more unsafe.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has taken the debate over whether to back airstrikes in Syria to his party’s members by polling them directly via email – in a move likely to increase tension among divided Labour MPs.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, one of Mr Corbyn’s close allies, appealed for calm, insisting the party was “working through the issues”. Cameron lost a vote on air strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in 2013 and must persuade some wary members of his Conservative Party and in the opposition Labour Party to back him if he is to win parliament’s support for military action. I’m the deputy leader of the party with a mandate.
Thanking the British people for their support, Mr Hollande told a press conference at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Malta: “I do hope that the House of Commons will be able to meet the request of Prime Minister Cameron”.
Cameron renewed his calls to expand Britain’s aerial campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group from Iraq to Syria, setting out the case in a written statement and a almost three-hour parliament session on Thursday.
A Black Country Labour MP has said party leader Jeremy Corbyn should step down over the question of whether to bomb Syria.
Cameron said if Britain didn’t act after IS-claimed attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, friendly nations might well ask, “if not now, when?”
Writing to his MPs and subsequently his Shadow Cabinet before an agreement was made, was met with destain from a senior Shadow Minister.
Mr Benn suggested that a free vote may be the only way forward. “I think the mood in Parliament has changed”, he said, predicting that the vote will pass since “a significant number of MPs” had changed their minds.
Mr Watson said he agreed with Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn’s view that the prime minister had made a “compelling case” for military action and that the United Kingdom faced an “imminent security threat”.
A vote by Mr Cameron on strikes is due before the Christmas parliamentary recess on December 17 which leaves him 14 days to table a motion, but he has said repeatedly that he wants a broad coalition across the House.
Mr Cameron said the Royal Air Force’s equipment is sophisticated enough to make a real difference to the current bombing campaigns of France and the US, and that he believed there were also 70,000 moderate forces on the ground who could support Britain’s campaign from the skies.
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“I think he’s trying to mount a coup against the shadow cabinet”, Mr Spellar said.
