Parliament votes to launch air strikes on Islamic State

UPDATE: 5.19pm

The government has won the vote by 524 to 43 - a majority of 481.

UPDATE: 3.48pm

Speaking in the House of Commons, MP for Newport West Paul Flynn said: “You don’t need [weapons] to fight terrorist activity. We need an independent foreign policy, free from the United States.”

UPDATE: 2.55pm

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, backed the air strikes, telling the House of Lords: "The action proposed today is right."

But he warned "we must not rely on a short-term solution" and a wider effort was needed to turn extremists away from the "evil of Isil".

The widow of the murdered British hostage, Dragana Prodanovic Haines, said she backed UK air strikes "limited to distinctive targets".

"No changes in such societies can be enforced, they have to come from within," she told Sky News.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon insisted the UK's forces would make an impact against IS and the US was "very happy" that British planes would soon join the campaign.

He said: "Militarily we certainly make a difference, and the Americans have made it very clear to me that they welcome the contribution we are about to make, if Parliament agrees, by deploying our Tornadoes, by deploying our very sophisticated surveillance system and by helping with other liaison and technical support, by helping the Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

UPDATE: 12.55pm

Sir Richard Ottaway, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said he feared deaths if British action takes place.

But he said he would back the Government's proposal for Iraq with "a feeling of depression and trepidation", although he also called for it to be extended to Syria.

The Conservative MP for Croydon South said: "This isn't going to be an easy campaign, it's going to be messy, it's going to be untidy and there will, I fear, be fatalities.

"But this intervention is the very least a country such as Britain and the United Kingdom should be doing. We're a world leader in the EU, in Nato and the G8.

"We hold down a permanent seat in the Security Council in the United Nations and we derive benefit from all of these positions but it also gives us responsibilities and we have a duty to act."

UPDATE: 12.20pm

The Labour leader said IS was "not simply another terrorist organisation" and said as well as British hostages, a series of minority groups including Christians and Yazidis were threatened.

Mr Miliband said: "Let's be clear about what this is: Isil is murdering Muslims.

"To those who say military action against Isil is somehow an attack on Islam, let me say this. I understand the anxiety, including from communities in Britain.

"But the truth is entirely different and it is Muslims themselves who are saying. Isil's ideology has nothing to do with the peaceful religion practised by billions across the world and by millions of our fellow citizens who are appalled by their actions."

UPDATE: 11.46am

Ed Miliband has outlined his support for Government plans to have the RAF join air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq in a tense debate in the recalled House of Commons.

Speaking after Prime Minister David Cameron made the case for Britain to join the coalition against the jihadists, the Labour leader said he believed a series of questions about the merits of action had been answered.

Mr Cameron had already faced scores of questions about the case for military action against Islamic State (IS), which is also known as Isis or Isil, from MPs on both sides of the Commons sceptical about the proposal.

Mr Miliband said: "The Prime Minister had said it has ambitions for a state of its own, a caliphate across the Middle Eat run according to their horrific norms and values.

"That's why I believe... we cannot simply stand by against the threat of Isil.

"In acting against them, we need to learn the lessons of the past and we should be clear about this with the British people - that means a comprehensive strategy, humanitarian and political, as well as military, and crucially routed in the region.

"Some of this work is under way but much more needs to be done.

"But there is a reality this House must face up up, which is to make this alliance work there is a need for military action as well to contain and counter the threat of Isil in Iraq. That is why we are meeting today."

Mr Miliband said IS presented reasons to fight a just cause because it threatened Britain's own security by damaging regional stability.

And he said it was clearly not possible or desirable to negotiate with IS.

Mr Miliband added: "I support this motion today because we are responding to the request from the democratic Iraqi state and this is recognised in the UN charter."

UPDATE: 11.17am

Opening the debate in the Commons Mr Cameron said: "The question before the House today is how we keep the British people safe from the threat posed by Isil and, in particular, what role our armed forces should play in the international coalition to dismantle and ultimately destroy what President Obama has rightly called this network of death.

"This is not a threat on the far side of the world," Mr Cameron told MPs.

"Left unchecked, we will face a terrorist caliphate on the shores of the Mediterranean, bordering a Nato member, with a declared and proven determination to attack our country and our people.

"This is not the stuff of fantasy - it is happening in front of us and we need to face up to it."

The Prime Minister said he would set out why there was a direct threat to the UK, that there was a "comprehensive plan for dealing with the threat", that military action was necessary, including UK involvement, that it was legal, had the support of local partners and "added up to a moral justification for putting the lives of British service men and women on the line".

UPDATE: 10.26am

The Prime Minister said there was "no more serious an issue" than deciding whether to commit British forces to the international effort to tackle IS and acknowledged the military effort would last "not just months, but years".

MPs will vote on whether to back the Royal Air Force joining the US-led bombing campaign, but British air strikes will be limited to Iraq rather than IS strongholds in Syria.

Opening the debate in the Commons Mr Cameron said: "The question before the House today is how we keep the British people safe from the threat posed by Isil and, in particular, what role our armed forces should play in the international coalition to dismantle and ultimately destroy what President Obama has rightly called this network of death.

"There is no more serious an issue than asking our armed forces to put themselves in harm's way to protect our country."