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Britain’s government just confirmed that the country will join the US and other nations in a bombing campaign against ISIS (also known as the Islamic State) in Syria.

The votes stacked up as follows:

In favour of bombing: 397

Against bombing: 223

A majority of 174.

The result came after 10.5 hours worth of parliamentary debates. 

Political pundits would remark that it was nearly certain that politicians would mostly back military air strikes against ISIS in Syria because, last week, Prime Minister David Cameron said he would only push for a vote if it was clear that MPs would approve the bombings.

Cameron said he didn’t want to risk ISIS being given a propaganda win if British politicians voted against military intervention in Syria.

Britain’s government has 8 Tornado jets based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus that are ready to be deployed. The Tornado jets can fly at twice the speed of sound and have a cruise speed of 8 miles a minute.

One of the takeaways from the vote is that the majority is a lot larger than pundits predicted. In fact, despite many Labour politicians breaking support from its leader Jeremy Corbyn, the government didn’t need the Labour vote in the end:

The speech from shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, which closed the parliamentary debate, apparently swayed a lot of opinions in favour of a bombing. Some of public on social media even said his rousing speech was a “mark of a leader.“

Meanwhile, the Britain’s foreign secretary and Conservative MP Philip Hammond told BBC’s Newsnight:

“I thought Hilary Benn’s speech was very good, I haven’t heard him give a speech like that before. It (the speech) was mainly to his own colleagues pleading with them not to abandon Labour’s long held tradition of internationalism.”

“Britain is safer because of the actions taken by MPs today.” 

“We will see this operational as soon as practical but we won’t give a running commentary about how these operations are progressing. 

“There were all sorts of debates going on today. What I would say to members who didn’t vote tonight is to think carefully about the arguments put forward tonight, about the multi-strand approach we are taking in Syria. We are doing the right thing. Military strikes alone won’t help Syria, won’t keep us safe from Daesh. But this multi-strand approach will.”

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