David Cameron has dismissed the latest Islamic State execution video as “desperate stuff” and insisted Britain would “not be cowed”.
He said yesterday the terrorist network was “losing territory” and “increasingly losing anybody’s sympathy”.
His words came as it emerged RAF planes have conducted 11 airstrikes since MPs voted to extend military action to Syria last month.
On a visit to east London, the Prime Minister – who has promised a crackdown on IS sympathisers – vowed the group would be defeated.
He added: “It’s desperate stuff from an organisation that really does do the most utterly despicable and ghastly acts.
“But this is an organisation that’s losing territory, it’s losing ground, it’s, I think, increasingly losing anybody’s sympathy, and this again shows what an appalling organisation we’re up against.
“They hate us not for what we do but for what we are – the fact that we are a successful, tolerant, democratic, multi-faith, multi-ethnic nation.
“But I know that Britain will never be cowed by this sort of terrorism. Our values are so much stronger than theirs.
“It may take a very long time but they will be defeated.”
Earlier in the day, the PM’s spokeswoman dismissed the clip as a “propaganda tool”.
She said it served as a reminder of IS’s “barbarity”, but cast doubt on the claim the five men shown being murdered had been spying for the UK.
She also said the contents of the film, which mocks the Prime Minister and the British bombing campaign, are being examined by the security services.
It is understood MI5 is using voice print analysis to try to determine the identity of the masked suspected British militant.
On the claim the men were spies, the PM’s spokeswoman said she could not comment on intelligence.
But she added: “Not all of Isil’s propaganda in the past has been true.”
Asked about the young boy featured in the video, she replied: “The government is clearly concerned about people in Britain and families being lured to Syria and going to fight for Daesh. That’s why we set out some very clear measures to dissuade people.”
After the Commons vote to extend air strikes to Syria, two more Tornados were deployed to join the eight already operating over Iraq and six Typhoons.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said operations involving both Typhoons and Tornados had continued at a “high intensity” over the holiday period.
It confirmed aircraft were engaged in attacks on December 23, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and December 26 and 27.
In addition, armed reconnaissance missions were flown daily, the MoD said.
The latest footage, which bears similarities to the clips featuring the British jihadist dubbed Jihadi John, shows the brutal murder of five men in orange jumpsuits.
They “confess” to filming and photographing sites in exchange for money within Raqqa, the capital of IS’s self-declared caliphate.
The militant then claims the Government “abandoned these spies” as the kneeling men are shot in the head.
At the end, a young boy says – with what sounds like a British accent – that IS will “go kill the kaffir (non-believers) over there”.
Meanwhile, a report by MPs published today has raised serious concerns about the plight of unaccompanied refugee children travelling through Europe.
In it the Commons international development committee calls on the UK Government to back Save the Children’s proposal of accepting an additional 3,000 refugee children from within Europe.
It also recommends the Conservatives insist other wealthy countries meet their funding commitments and urges them to press the Lebanese authorities to reverse their decision to ban Syrian refugees from being registered.
The MPs additionally call on the Department for International Development (Dfid) to investigate options for financial and employment assistance for refugees.