Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and Lieutenant General Gordon Messenger have answered questions from the House of Commons Defence Select Committee (HCDC) on the potential for air strikes by the Royal Air Force in Syria.
The session started with the Defence Secretary delivering an opening statement:
We are proposing this action to Parliament tomorrow because ISIL is a very real threat to us here in Britain. The attacks in Paris brought home this evil organisation to our doorstep. To those who say fighting ISIL will make us a target, I say again we are already a target. We now need to act against ISIL in Syria, where ISIL is headquartered and hatches its plot against us. Our allies have made clear that extending UK operations to Syria would make a difference. They have asked for our support because the UK provides up to a third of the coalition's high-end capability at the moment.
There is an urgent need for the UK to join the fight against ISIL in Syria for our own security and to provide vital support for our allies. That does not mean we will compromise our rules of engagement or selection of targets. In summary, airstrikes alone cannot defeat ISIL, but they can degrade ISIL. They can prevent ISIL expanding further in Syria; they can relieve the pressure on opposition forces; and they can enhance the prospect of political negotiations leading to a new and more secure Syrian state. By putting more pressure on ISIL, we can reduce its ability to launch international attacks against the UK and others, thus making us safer.