No10 insists that Cameron may still seek vote on bombing Syria

Number 10 is this morning pushing back against the reports that David Cameron has abandoned a vote on extending British military involvement in action against Isis to Syria. Sources insist that they do not recognise the stories that have appeared in a number of papers and that nothing has changed. Those reports suggest that Cameron was struggling to persuade sufficient numbers of Labour MPs to back his stance. This is not particularly surprising given it was always going to be difficult to be confident that MPs from another party would definitely do as they said. The Tory whips can hardly apply the same methods to those MPs in the Opposition party as they do to those on their own side. Cameron has always said he will not bring a vote until there is consensus. But there seems to be a lack of confidence about the difference British involvement would make when currently British action in Iraq has to a certain extent freed up other countries to focus more on Syria.