The last-minute dispute threatened to erode the comfortable majority Cameron was relying on when he sought to authorize the Royal Air Force to launch airstrikes against suspected Islamic State positions inside Syria.
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A bruising debate began Wednesday morning in Parliament, with a vote expected late in the evening after more than 10 hours of discussion.
But on a day meant to convey national unity, Cameron struggled to even get through his opening remarks, as outraged opposition Labour Party lawmakers demanded he retract remarks reportedly made at a closed-door meeting in which he branded opponents a “bunch of terrorist sympathizers”.
In a tweet, David Cameron said that he believed the House of Commons had “taken the right decision to keep the United Kingdom safe”, stressing that military action in Syria was “one part of a broader strategy” to deal with the threat from Islamic State (IS).
Cameron has been criticised for stepping back from the world since he took the top job in 2010, particularly after he lost a 2013 vote in parliament on military action against Assad’s government.
France’s government is welcoming the first British airstrikes in Syria, saying they are a sign of the European solidarity promised after the November 13 attacks that terrorized Paris.
In a statement, he added: “We look forward to having British forces flying with the coalition over Syria and will work to integrate them into our Coalition Air Tasking Orders as quickly as possible”.
Four RAF Tornado jets, which carry a range of munitions including Paveway IV guided bombs and precision-guided Brimstone missiles, took off from the Akrotiri base in Cyprus but defence officials refused to be drawn on the targets of their mission.
Amid persistent heckling from Conservatives, Corbyn said airstrikes in Syria would lead to “unintended consequences”, including more civilian casualties as well as a heightened motivation for extremists to attack Britain.
Germany’s parliament on Friday will vote on whether to commit up to 1,200 soldiers to support the coalition fighting ISIL in Syria.
He said that attacking IS was not anti-Muslim but “a defense of Islam” against “women-raping, Muslim-murdering, medieval monsters”.
He said: “We must now confront this evil”.
But critics said the intervention would put the British public at greater risk of terror and have limited effect following months of bombing in Syria by a dozen different countries.
On Twitter those backing the war have remained silent.
“This is not about whether we want to fight terrorism, it’s about how best we do that”, he told MPs during a House of Commons debate.
Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn was lauded by MPs from across the House for making a powerful speech warning his party that “we never have and we never should walk by on the other side of the road”.
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The United States has conducted the vast majority of allied bombing runs in Syria, but France has escalated its contributions in the weeks since the Paris attacks.
