Free Syrian Army fighters in the rubble of the old city of Aleppo

British military chiefs are being ejected from US meetings about Syria in the first direct consequence of David Cameron’s refusal to join military action.

The role of senior British officers based at US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, has been downgraded because they cannot be trusted with high-level intelligence about a conflict with which they are no longer involved, military sources say.

About 30 British personnel have been working alongside the Americans and French at the headquarters, fine-tuning a list of targets and orchestrating military assets as part of war planning under way for weeks.

After the House of Commons rejected a motion on Syrian action last Thursday and Mr Cameron ruled out an attack, the officers were told that they could no longer take