Prime Minister David Cameron urged lawmakers on Friday to vote in favour of Britain joining US-led air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq, hours ahead of a crunch parliamentary vote he is expected to win.
Approval would mean Britain embarking on its first military campaign since it launched air strikes in 2011 against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in Libya, seeing it join a coalition that includes the United States, France and Middle Eastern allies.
Cameron recalled parliament from recess for a special session after the Iraqi government requested British intervention, and was careful to secure cross-party support for strikes against IS before putting forward a motion.
“Is there a threat to the British people? The answer is yes,” Cameron told parliament, saying he thought action would need to last “years” to be effective.
“This is not a threat on the far side of the world. Left unchecked we will face a terrorist caliphate on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a Nato member, with a declared and proven intention to attack our country and our people.”
Britain, a staunch US ally, was quick to join military action in Afghanistan and Iraq a decade ago. But a war-weary public and parliament’s rejection last year of strikes on the Syrian government prompted Cameron to tread carefully this time.
Cameron is expected to comfortably win the parliamentary vote, which is due at around 1600 GMT.
Before Friday, Britain had confined itself to delivering aid, carrying out surveillance, arming Kurdish forces who are fighting IS militants, and promising training in Iraq.
But the beheading of a British aid worker by an Islamic State militant with a British accent has highlighted the danger the group poses to domestic security. The fate of another Briton being held, Alan Henning, has also stirred public opinion.
Cameron’s approach has dismayed some lawmakers in his Conservative Party who think striking IS in Iraq is insufficient and want him to extend action to tackle militants in Syria too, something he has said he is not ready to do for now.
