Syria vote: Where does your MP stand on UK military action against IS?

Conservative MPs Mike Wood, Margot James and James Morris, who represent Dudley South, Stourbridge and Halesowen and Rowley Regis respectively, said ahead of the vote that they intended to back military action.

Mr Morris said: "Tonight I will be voting in favour of extending British involvement in air strikes against Isil to Syria.

"Isil is a real and current threat to the UK and to our way of life. Any decision which involves military action can never be taken lightly. This is something I have thought about very carefully.

"Air strikes will be an essential tool in our fight against Isil – but it will be part of a broader strategy for Syria, which includes finding a political solution to the turmoil; a continuation of our extensive humanitarian efforts; and a clear commitment to post-conflict reconstruction.

"I firmly believe it is in our national interest and the right thing to do to extend air strikes into Syria, and that is why I will be voting in favour tonight."

Mr Wood said: "I have listened to constituents and what the Prime Minister has said and there is a very clear and strong case as to why we need to expand the current action in Iraq to cover Isil in Syria as well.

"The idea we are putting ourselves at risk by taking action is absolutely ludicrous. The security services and intelligence services are all agreed that we are already at the very highest category in terms of of IS targets."

Conservative Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) told the debate: "I would ask the leader of the opposition to rethink his position. If we don't take on Daesh, more men, women and children - in their hundreds, in their thousands - will continue to be murdered.

"I don't think anyone enters Parliament to make war. Indeed, I would hope everyone in this chamber is a peacemaker. There is enough war and conflict in this world already.

"I pay tribute to the pacifists and peacemakers who sit on the benches opposite and the peacemakers on these benches. Their views are both valid and respectable.

"But unfortunately, Daesh are neither peacemakers nor pacifists. They are a brutal, murderous and genocidal enemy that are killing men, women, children and peacemakers - probably at this very hour, as we speak.

"Whether it is politically or intellectually palatable or not, it is a case, sadly, of kill or be killed."

Jeremy Lefroy, MP for Stafford, has also said he plans to back the airstrikes.

"This is an issue of the utmost seriousness and I have considered very carefully the points all my constituents have made," he said.

"The United Kingdom has been carrying out airstrikes against ISIL (or Daesh as I prefer to call them) in Iraq for more than a year. These were authorised by Parliament when ISIL had started taking large swathes of territory and several cities in Iraq and Syria, including Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq.

"Since the vote last year permitting air strikes in Iraq, ISIL has carried out terrorist acts within Iraq, Syria and in Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia (where 30 British citizens were murdered) and Paris (where a British citizen was also killed). They have also destroyed a Russian airliner with more than 220 people on board. Several ISIL or ISIL-inspired plots against the UK have already been foiled this year by our excellent security services.

"ISIL must be defeated. They are a direct threat to the people of Syria, Iraq and many surrounding countries, and have made clear their intention to continue to launch attacks in Europe and elsewhere. Their ideology and practices are anathema. I do not believe that we in the United Kingdom can stand aside in the struggle to defeat them."

Only David Winnick, Labour MP for Walsall North, and Valerie Vaz, Labour MP for Walsall South have so far said they they will vote against airstrikes.

Mr Winnick told the debate this afternoon that everyone should be free to make up their own mind when it comes to the vote.

"We should be able to vote without any fears of intimidation and the rest," he said. "And also, if I may say so, without the kind of slurs that the Prime Minister made apparently at a private meeting.

"I'm not a sympathiser of terrorism. I hate terrorism and I doubt if there is a single member of this House who thinks otherwise."

He said he will be voting against extending air strikes.

"I'm simply not persuaded by the arguments advanced by the Government today," he said. "If I was I would certainly vote with the Government and I certainly wouldn't be put off any more than a number of my friends will be by threats.

"We must be able to vote as we consider appropriate."

Mr Winnick said no one can doubt the "sheer murderous brutality" of Daesh. However, extending air strikes would "make little or no difference".

In a statement Valerie Vaz said: "IS must be destroyed. It is responsible for the horrific attacks in Paris and Beirut in November, the killings of 30 British Citizens at Sousse in Tunisia... and thousands of innocent civilians in Syria, most of whom are Muslim.

"I have decided to vote against the Government's motion relating to airstrikes in Syria. In my view, the military, political and diplomatic conditions do not justify the use of airstrikes in Syria. The Foreign Affairs Select Committee voted yesterday for a motion opposing the use of airstrikes in Syria for similar reasons.

"The Prime Minister's strategy of bombing in Syria relies on suitable allies on the ground who could assist with targeting and who could take control of areas which had been targeted. It is not clear that such allies with sufficient capabilities exist and again today the Prime Minister could not adequately quantify the forces available on the ground. The Prime Minister did not set out specific action to stop illicit oil sales by Isil-Daesh or to cut off their funding streams. "Crucially, I am not satisfied that civilians will be safe from harm.

"Syria has been in a state of civil war for the last four years and the political situation is chaotic. There are hundreds of groups fighting as part of various coalitions, whose goals are unclear and whose allegiances are constantly changing. Two years ago we were asked by the Government to bomb the Assad regime.

"The situation in Syria is further complicated by the involvement of Russia and Iran backing President Assad and Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and US backing various rebel factions. Britain has gained an important diplomatic opportunity by not being directly involved in combat and by providing humanitarian aid to refugees in camps in Syria and Jordan. Bombing risks undermining this position.

"The Arab states, the United Nations and the EU, must work together to bring about a comprehensive political and diplomatic settlement. Multilateral peace talks are reported to be taking place in Vienna this month and must be given the opportunity to take effect.

"Defeating Isil-Daesh requires a coherent political, diplomatic and military strategy which the emphasis on UK air strikes in Syria does not provide. I will be voting against the UK carrying out air strikes in Syria."

Wolverhampton South East MP Pat McFadden said: "There is a view the Islamist terrorist threat we face is a product of what we have done or a reaction to it.

"In this view, while of course the activities of terrorists are condemned, the real source of the problem is seen as the actions we have taken in the past and the kind of action proposed in the motion before us tonight.

"In this view, the killings in Paris were seen as, I quote, 'reaping the whirlwind' of action that France or the West more generally has taken. The danger of this view is that it infantilises terrorism and it absolves it of the full responsibility.

"The terrorists are adults motivated by their own ideology which justifies the killing of innocent people from France to Mali to Iraq and to Syria. They are fully, not partially, responsible for what they do.

"No one forces anyone to sell women into sexual slavery. No one forces anyone to behead innocent aid workers. No one forces anyone to bomb the London Underground or to kill innocent Parisians at a pop concert.

"And the problem with this argument is not only that it misunderstands what we are up against but it also implies if we lie low, they will leave us alone.

"They will not. If we disarm ourselves against the threat we face we cannot confront it or overcome it."

All eyes will be on Labour MPs tonight, with Mr Cameron reliant on votes from the party's MPs if he is to get the vote through. Some of the party's MPs in the Black Country have questioned whether Mr Cameron has a long-term plan for stabilising Syria rather than just a bombing campaign.

Labour's Rob Marris, MP for Wolverhampton South West, and Ian Austin, MP for Dudley North, said on Monday they were undecided over which way they would be voting.