David Cameron on his way to the House of Commons following a meeting with the government’s Cobra emergency committee on the situation in Iraq. Photo: PA Wire

Britain will increase diplomatic efforts to make sure other countries in the Group of Eight (G8) major economies stick to an agreement not to pay hostage ransoms, Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday.

Leaders agreed at last year’s G8 summit to a communique rejecting the payment of ransoms and calling on other countries and companies around the world to follow their lead.

“Britain continues with this policy, America continues with this policy but we need to redouble the efforts to make sure that other countries are good to their word,” Cameron said.

US and European officials have said that France, Spain and Italy have tolerated or facilitated ransom payments for citizens held in Syria.

Cameron told Parliament he had no doubt that tens of millions of pounds of ransom payments were going to Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq, and were being used to promote and fund attacks that affected Britain.

The British Prime Minister’s comments came yesterday after an IS video on Tuesday purported to show the beheading of a second American hostage by a man with a British accent, and issued a threat against a British hostage.

US and European officials have said that France, Spain and Italy have tolerated or facilitated ransom payments for citizens held in Syria

Meanwhile Britain’s Foreign Minister said yesterday that Islamic State’s seizure of a British hostage did not make airstrikes on the militants more or less likely, but he insisted that he was not ruling that option out.

IS released a video on Tuesday purporting to show the beheading of a second American hostage, journalist Steven Sotloff, and issued a threat against a British hostage warning governments to back off “this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State”.

“It doesn’t make any difference at all to our strategic planning,” Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told reporters. “If we judge that airstrikes could be beneficial... then we will certainly consider them. But we have made no decision to do so at the moment.”

Hammond was speaking after a meeting of the government’s emergency response committee with the Prime Minister and said that a preliminary government analysis showed the video was genuine.

He said the IS militant who appeared in the Sotloff video appeared to be the same man with an apparently British accent whose voice was featured in the video of the beheading of US journalist James Foley.

“You wouldn’t expect me to discuss various options that we will be considering but I can assure you that we will look at every possible option to protect this person,” he added, referring to the British hostage being held by the militants.