Theresa May will use David Cameron's jihadi drone strike statement as template for telling MPs about Syria action

Exclusive: Officials believe the form of the 2015 House of Commons statement will allow Ms May to meet her obligations to parliament after action has begun

Theresa May is set to inform MPs about military action against the Assad regime, in the same way David Cameron did after a UK drone killed British jihadis in Syria three years ago.

Officials see Mr Cameron’s House of Commons statement, in the wake of the drone strike that killed British Isis fighters Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin, as an exemplar for how Ms May can meet her obligations to parliament after action has been taken.

Following the state-sanctioned killings in 2015, Mr Cameron set out the legal basis and process which led him to act but did not reveal specific detail of the advice he was given.

The development comes as Ms May is expected to press ahead with military action in Syria without giving MPs who return to the Commons on Monday a vote beforehand.

The Independent understands that a discussion of matters of international law affecting proposed military action in Syria was held at the two-hour War Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Among the discussion was the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty, signed by Syria, which would have been breached by the Assad regime if it conducted the attack in Douma that has galvanised the West into action.

In terms of how Ms May will approach setting out the case to parliament, a senior official said: “We have clear precedent at the time of the drone strikes in Syria, when [Mr Cameron] set out the legal basis for our action.

“He didn’t disclose the details of any advice that was given, or may have been given, but he explained the legal basis for Britain’s action.

“That‘s a good precedent for a government to adopt in future when explaining the basis for its actions, as it preserves the importance of lawyer-client confidentiality – that advice is confidential unless it is waived – and it allows the public to understand the basis upon which the government has acted.”

Mr Cameron’s 2015 statement was designed to meet obligations that arose from the Chilcot Inquiry, to investigate decision-making that led the UK into the Iraq War, which identified a lack of involvement of the wider Cabinet and poor clarity over how legal advice was used and who was privy to it.

The statement set out issues of international law and – significantly for more recent events – noted that “to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, you could act immediately and explain to the House of Commons afterwards.”

The then-prime minister set out the process of meetings and individuals involved in the decision-making process that led to the drone strike operation.

The source told The Independent that the 2015 action was, as a result, “a very different approach from the one that was taken at the Iraq War”.

They added: “There was a debate, there were questions he was asked, a lot of questions from MPs, and it was a very transparent way of doing it.

“It’s a good example of how government has evolved to take into account and to adopt the recommendations of Chilcot – but at the same time to maintain what has to be a level of confidentiality when it comes to some of the detail.”

Ms May has been under pressure from MPs to give the Commons a vote prior to action being taken in Syria with the US and France.

Thursday’s post-Cabinet statement made no reference to whether parliament would be given a say on military action.

Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said on Friday: “It would be outrageous for the government not to bring military action in Syria to parliament, for parliament not to have a vote.

“And the Tories used to think like that. The reason they are not doing it is they are frightened they will lose the vote.”