Ed Miliband responded to the prime minister’s statement on Libya in the Commons today:

“We support Britain playing its full part in the international action which is planned. I applaud all efforts which made this happen, including those of the prime minister and the British government.

“We will both support the government and ask the necessary questions we think the country will want asked.

“Any decision to commit British armed forces is a grave and serious one and must be based on a clear and compelling case.

“Colonel Gaddafi is brutalising his own people. It is action backed in the region, and it is backed now by legal mandate from the United Nations.

“These are necessary preconditions for legitimate and effective action. It would be quite wrong for us to stand by, given what is going on in Libya, and do nothing.”