SOUTH Dorset MP Richard Drax has cautioned the Prime Minister from ruling out the use of Western troops in the fight against Islamic State.

Mr Drax was one of more than one hundred MPs to question David Cameron today as the Prime Minister made the case for extending UK airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria.

Mr Cameron said it was in the national interest for action to be taken to stop Islamic State and this requires taking action in Raqqa, Syria, argued to be IS’ capital.

The Prime Minister said he had been advised taking action would reduce the threat posed by IS. He said he would hold a Commons vote on Syria air strikes only if he believed he would win it but ruled out the deployment of British combat forces.

Mr Drax, a former Coldstream Guard, asked if he could caution the Prime Minister on the latter point, however.

He said: “God forbid but further major attacks on the West as we have seen in Paris, London and New York could, I say could, force, indeed demand, the Western allies to deploy with local troops to crush Isil and prevent further atrocities on our streets.”

Mr Cameron told MPs that the presence of Western troops on the ground in Syria could be counterproductive.