Julian Lewis: We face a choice between Assad and IS

Julian Lewis MP, chair of the defence committee, who is voting against the government, said that there was a need for a hard choice between Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State.

“We face a choice between very nasty authoritarian and Islamist totalitarians. There is no other third way," he said.

“Dodgy dossiers are replaced by bogus battalions...we need to choose the lesser of two evils and abandon the fiction of a cosy third choice.”

“There is a general consensus now that the decision to remove Saddam Hussein is now regarded as a mistake - but Saddam Hussein was every bit much the vicious dictator we are now told Assad is.”

He added that Turkey's attacks on Kurdish forces in northern Syria and Iraq should be condemned.

“It’s not only ridiculous but highly dangerous to have separate conflicts going on within the same battle space.”