THE Prime Minister held a private meeting with Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers to persuade him to support military action in Syria before his motion was defeated in Parliament.
David Cameron, pictured, met with Martin Vickers before the landmark vote on Thursday night, which has ruled out military intervention from Britain in Syria.
Mr Vickers was one of the 30 Conservative MPs who helped defeat their own Government's motion – and he had spoken out against action beforehand.
Mr Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague held private meetings with "many more" than 30 MPs in a last-ditch attempt to gain support, according to Mr Vickers.
Mr Vickers said: "The Prime Minister gave me ten minutes of his time to try to persuade me to support action, but I have spent a long time considering the issue and my mind was made up.
"I did not feel pressured but the adrenaline was definitely running and I respect the fact that Mr Cameron obviously felt passionate about the subject when we spoke on it.
"However, I too feel passionately about it and could not support intervention as I don't feel it is Britain's job to take sides with one Muslim group over another. The only reason we are considering this is because of our imperialist history – but we have never held an imperial role in Syria.
"Other Governments in other countries will not be agonising over military intervention in the same way.
"Also, I do not believe that what is proposed would solve the problem in Syria.
"We can send missiles in response to the use of chemical weapons this time, but what do we do when it happens the next time and the time after that?"
Mr Vickers disagreed with the widely-publicised view that the vote dealt a hugely damaging blow to a Prime Minister who could not control his backbenchers – of which he is one.
Instead, he hailed it as a "victory for the democratic process".
Mr Vickers said: "This is an example of MPs holding the Government to account and making sure its leaders act in accordance with the people.
"In some ways, that was apparent even before the vote as MPs had made it very clear that we wanted to vote on the issue before any action was taken.
"People in Demascus would be envious of a political process in which decisions – like this one – can be made peacefully.
"I think all three main party leaders overstretched themselves and underestimated the conviction of the people in their parties.
"We saw that with Ed Miliband too, who supported military action one minute and then U-turned when he realised how strongly people within his party opposed it."
