PM challenged over Mali deployment

Mr Flynn voiced alarm at Mr Cameron's failure to consult MPs over sending hundreds of British troops to Mali.

The Newport West MP put down an early day motion demanding a full-scale debate and vote in the House of Commons on the deployment of nearly 400 soldiers to the latest African conflict.

"Cameron is trying to emulate Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair," accused Mr Flynn.

"He has been preening and posturing and indulging in Churchillian rhetoric."

Warning that Britain could be sucked into a prolonged war, Mr Flynn added: "The British troops going to Mali do carry arms, which will be used if they are attacked."

Tory Peter Tapsell cautioned Mr Cameron over his trip to Algeria just hours before the PM flew there today.

The veteran Tory recalled at Question Time that French king Louis Philippe sent his eldest son to Algeria in the 1840's on a similar venture.

"It took a century, massive casualties, the overthrow of the Third Republic and the genius of General de Gaulle to get the French army back out of the north African desert," he added.

Respect MP George Galloway asked what were the differences between "the hand-chopping, throat-cutting jihadists fighting the dictatorship in Mali that we are now to help to kill, and the equally bloodthirsty jihadists that we are giving money, material, political and diplomatic support to in Syria."

He queried: "Has the Prime Minister read Frankenstein and did he read it to the end?"

A rattled Mr Cameron retorted that "wherever there is a brutal Arab dictator in the world, he will have the support of the honourable gentleman."

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond this week dodged the issue of a parliamentary vote on Mali.

"The troops that we are talking about deploying will not be used in a combat role, and the war powers issue does not arise," he told Mr Flynn on Tuesday.

Tory MP Colonel Bob Stewart, former commander in Bosnia, deflated Mr Hammond's argument by pointing out that a detachment of the RAF Regiment is accompanying the C-17 transport aircraft deployed to Mali.

"Force protection personnel are combat troops," he said.