by Our News Desk

DISGRACED former defence secretary Liam Fox urged Parliament yesterday to give government the “tools it needs” to bomb Syria, Libya and elsewhere.

Mr Fox, who resigned over allegations that he gave a lobbyist friend special treatment, claimed that Britain had a legitimate right to attack Islamic State (Isis) targets.

He said Britain should take part in a greater proportion of the coalition’s air strikes, although he stopped short of calling for ground troops to be sent in.

On Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Fox said: “I don’t think it’s healthy for the coalition against Isis that the United States is carrying out some 90 per cent or more of all the air strikes.”

He was speaking after Prime Minister David Cameron indicated that Britain could take military action against Isis in Libya or Syria if there was an imminent threat to British lives.

Responding to Mr Fox’s calls for British air strikes in Syria, Stop The War national officer Chris Nineham told the Star: “We can see how this argument has been slowly gathering momentum among the Tories and the wider Establishment.”

But he warned against intervention in the Middle East at a time when it is “on the brink of a regional war.”

Mr Nineham added: “It’s disastrous that the government is choosing this particular time to step up its intervention, which can only hasten the conflict in the region.”

He pointed out that the government had already “completely ignored the will of Parliament” over air strikes in Syria.

MPs voted in 2013 to reject such action, but it has recently been revealed that RAF pilots embedded with other countries’ forces are already attacking Syrian targets.