The UK "will not waver" in its aim to defeat terrorism, David Cameron has said as he condemned the "barbaric" beheading of a second US hostage.
Islamic State extremists threatened to kill a British hostage in a video of US journalist Steven Sotloff's killing.
IS said the Briton, who has family in Scotland, would be killed unless US air strikes in Iraq were halted. Relatives have asked the media not to name him.
Video of US journalist James Foley's killing by IS emerged last month.
Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Cameron told MPs that "this country will never give in to terrorism and our opposition to Isil (IS) will continue at home and abroad".
End Quote Prime Minister David CameronA country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric killers"
He said: "What has happened to the two hostages so far and what may happen again in the future is utterly abhorrent and barbaric and these people need to understand we will not waver in our aim of defeating terrorism."
An IS video posted online two weeks ago showed the killing of another US journalist, James Foley.
Mr Sotloff, 31, who was seized in Syria last year, also appeared in that footage with a warning that he would be next.
The British hostage appears at the end of the latest video, released on Tuesday and entitled A Second Message To America. The US has confirmed the video is authentic.
Mr Cameron said: "A country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric killers. If they think we will weaken in the face of their threats, they are wrong.
"It will have the opposite effect. We will be more forthright in the defence of the values, liberty under the rule of law, freedom, democracy that we hold dear."
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the UK will look at "every possible option" to protect the British hostage.
He said the UK government had been aware of a British citizen being held by IS for "some time".
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The Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, says the video appears to show the same militant with an English accent
Speaking after a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee, Mr Hammond said: "I can assure you we will look at every possible option to protect this person."
He said the release of the latest video would not make any difference to the government's overall strategy.
"We have to deal with IS on the basis of the wider threat that they pose to the British public as well as this individual.
"If we judge that air strikes could be beneficial, could be the best way to do that, then we will certainly consider them but we have made no decision to do so at the moment."
AnalysisBy Nick Robinson, BBC political editor
Both Tory and Lib Dem ministers tell me that they see both a moral and a legal case for air strikes in Iraq provided they are requested by the Iraqi government and/or the Kurdish Peshmerga, are backed by a wide number of countries and have a clear military objective.
Syria, they say, is different as they are not prepared to act with President Assad who, in any case, has a fierce air defence system which could threaten coalition jets.
On Wednesday morning the former Labour Foreign Secretary Jack Straw added his voice to those on the Labour benches backing strikes. Peter Hain and John Woodcock - who was an adviser to former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon - have already said so.
Will David Cameron escape from underneath what friends of his describe as the black cloud of British involvement in Iraq?
Ed Miliband backed action in Libya but blocked it in Syria. What will he do now?
The US has launched more than 120 air strikes in Iraq in the past month, in an attempt to help Kurdish forces curb the advance of IS militants.
The extreme Sunni group has seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in recent months, declaring a new caliphate, or Islamic state.
Britain has not taken military action against IS so far, but Mr Cameron refused to rule out the possibility earlier this week.
Asked if the latest video would increase pressure on the government to take military action, one Downing Street official said the question was "way ahead of the curve".
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said if the UK did not "act to stem the onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement, it will only grow stronger until it can target us on the streets of Britain".
Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said his "instinct" was for the UK to join US air strikes in Iraq.
"We should learn from the past, but not be paralysed by it," Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, referring to the previous conflict in Iraq.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the killing of Mr Sotloff demonstrated the "murderous barbarism" of IS and showed the group was "a threat which cannot be ignored".
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Another western hostage is seen in the video, the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner reports
Mr Straw also said the issue of the British hostage should be handled in secret.
"You need communication with the hostage takers but not negotiation and there's a very fine line between those two," he said.
Sir Menzies Campbell, a member of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, said the UK should not negotiate with the militants.
"What you to ask yourself is whether, if succumbing to this kind of blackmail, things will turn out to be better in the end," he said.
"For the moment I don't think there's any other answer to that question than to say 'No'."
Home Secretary Theresa May called Islamic State a "group of murderous psychopaths".
She also said the government would continue to take steps to have the powers that would protect national security.
On Monday the prime minister outlined plans for new powers to seize terrorist suspects' passports and stop British-born extremists from returning to the UK.
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