BombingISIS will only feed the evil

Speaking in the House of Commons he said: “The Prime Minister has stressed that the ISIL-first strategy cannot extend to our intervening as an ally of Assad.

“In the memorandum to the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) he said that an intervention on such terms would be wrong on three grounds: it would misunderstand the causes of the problem; it would make matters worse; and Assad’s rule is one of ISIL’s greatest recruiting sergeants.”

He asked the Prime Minister: “Does he accept that those valid considerations against such intervention also persuade many of us against intervention on the terms he is commending? We do not want to feed the evil we want to defeat.”

Mr Cameron said: “I have great respect for the hon. Gentleman, but if we do not intervene against ISIL, we should not be surprised when it grows and threatens us more.

“Of course there are concerns and difficult questions - it is a complex situation - but, as I have said, just because a strategy is complicated and takes a long time does not mean it is not the right strategy and cannot work.

“If hon. Members are looking for complexity as a reason to say, ‘This is difficult, and therefore we cannot support it,’ they will not have any trouble finding it - it is complex - but in the end it comes down to some simple judgements about what will make us safer or less safe.”