PM’s comments come as defence secretary vows that parliament’s approval would be sought before including air strikes in Syria as part of response to Tunisia attacks

David Cameron believes British MPs need to think again about what else British forces can do to help moderate forces in Syria, Downing Street has said.

No 10 stressed it would be better if military action, likely to be air strikes, only went ahead if there was a consensus in the Commons.



The comments came as Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, speaking in a pre-arranged Commons debate on international security, said Isis was directed and led from northern Syria and directing attacks in other countries.



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He vowed that if there was any decision to include air strikes in Syria as part of a full spectrum response, the government would seek the approval of parliament. “Our position remains that we would return to this house for approval before air strikes in Syria.” He added: “We will only bring a motion to this house on which there is some consensus.”

Fallon said Islamic State “was an evil caliphate that does not respect state boundaries”, adding that opinion might have changed in parliament since views expressed in the 2013 vote when the Commons vetoed air strikes on Syria.

He continued: “We are clear any action we take must not provide any succour to Assad’s regime.”

He described last Friday’s attack on tourists in Tunisia as “a day of terror that meant the world we are living in has become a darker and more dangerous place”.



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He said nearly 1,000 missions and 300 air strikes had taken place against Isis targets in Iraq, and 325 UK troops were in Iraq helping the government deal with IEDs [improvised explosive devices].

The prime minister’s spokeswoman stressed that British military assets were already flying over Syria, and British forces were helping to train members of the Syrian Free Army outside Syria itself.

Cameron’s spokeswoman said MPs needed to think about what more could be done to protect British people in the wake of the attacks on tourists in Tunisia last week.

She stressed that the prime minister had long thought there was a case to do more in Syria, saying the murders last week underlined the scale of the threat posed to British people by Isis.

But she added there was a need “for more thought, more deliberation, and more time”, pointing out that parliament will go into recess in the middle of July. She said military strikes would be legal under international law due to the threat posed by Isis to the British people.

The timetable suggests Downing Street will wait to see who is elected Labour leader on 12 September at the earliest before making any specific proposal to the Labour party.

Cameron’s stance suggests one of the new leader’s first tests will be to decide whether to back further action in Syria.

The prime minister was defeated in August 2013 when Ed Miliband effectively blocked military strikes against the regime of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, after a chemical weapons attack near Damascus.

The coalition government won parliament’s support last year for the air strikes against Isis targets in Iraq. But Cameron stopped short of trying to win approval for expanding the air strikes to Syria amid objections from the Labour party.

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Labour leadership sources acknowledged that the position in Syria is different to 2013 when Miliband opposed military action.

Labour sources said the threat posed by Isis was new and different, but said there would need to be clarity about objectives, effectiveness, the degree of support in the region – especially Iraq – and legality.

Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, said the call for further action made perfect military logic, but added that “bombs are not enough if it is not part of a clear diplomatic strategy”.

Fallon had told the BBC’s World at One on Wednesday that MPs needed to think carefully about how to defeat an organisation that ignored international borders, describing the UK’s approach as illogical.

“We’ve always been clear that Isil [Isis] has to be defeated in both Syria and Iraq. We have plenty to do in Iraq. Each member of the coalition is doing different things. [Isis] is organised and directed and administered from Syria. There is an illogicality about not being able to do it.”

Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, the newly appointed chair of the foreign affairs select committee, warned that any action taken should be a “battle-winning decision” and that air strikes in Syria would make little difference to the outcome of the mission to defeat Isis.

He stressed that the UK’s role in fighting the terrorist group was minor, saying that only 5% of the anti-Isis missions flown in the region were by UK aircraft.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, Blunt said the UK would be getting itself into a legal grey area. “I don’t think it’s quite as clear as people have said it is. It’s easy to come in as the guest of the government in Iraq, at their invitation, in their country. It becomes slightly more questionable when you don’t have a United Nations security council resolution and you’re operating in another country.”

The prime minister is keen to explore whether parliament would support an expansion of the bombing campaign as part of what he describes as his “full spectrum” response to Isis in light of the Tunisia gun attack.

Cameron, who is due to outline his response to extremist threats at home and abroad within weeks, wants to test the waters for a renewed parliamentary vote to permit air strikes on Syria.

The prime minister will be unable to act without the support of the Labour frontbench because Tory rebels would cut his parliamentary majority on any military action.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme on Thursday morning, the former head of the British army, Richard Dannatt, said Fallon was right to say that Britain’s current approach was inconsistent.



“So called Islamic State, Isil, Isis, call them what you like, have no respect for the borders that currently exist,” he said. “Iraq is Iraq, Syria is Syria to us, but not to them. Michael Fallon has said they don’t differentiate and frankly it has been illogical for the last year that our forces have been engaged in the air above Iraq and not above Syria.

“There is a practical consideration and I don’t know what the technical answer is. We have been concerned about the Syrian air defence system for quite some time, but it would seem that the Americans and other members of the coalition have successfully been operating in the Syrian air space. If they can, then I believe that we can, too, and if that is not a major issue then we should.”