MPs have voted to bomb Islamic State targets in Syria.

And air strikes have already begun after Parliament voted in favour of action last night.

MPs, including those in Hampshire who have been divided on the issue, debated whether Britain should join the USA and France in a bombing campaign for nearly 11 hours in the House of Commons.

The motion for air strikes was passed by 397 votes to 223.

This will extend ongoing military action from Iraq into neighbouring Syria.

One of the most outspoken opponents of bombing was New Forest East MP and chairman of the Defence Select Committee Julian Lewis.

Speaking in the debate he warned that British air strikes in Syria must be accompanied by fighting on the ground.

Dr Lewis said air strikes alone were a “dangerous diversion and distraction” and without ground forces would be “ineffective and potentially dangerous”.

He called for a grand military alliance as he questioned the Government’s assessment of the number of moderate fighters in Syria.

He added: “The fact that the British Government wanted to bomb first one side and then the other in the same civil war, in such a short space of time, illustrates to my mind a vacuum at the heart of our strategy.’ ‘We face a choice between very nasty authoritarians and Islamist totalitarians, there is no third way. Our Government however is in denial about this.’’ He added that with the ground forces suggested by Government – 70,000 members of the Free Syrian Army – it was “very doubtful” that if this alliance was successful that territory freed from IS would not remain under Islamist control.

“Instead of dodgy dossiers we now have bogus battalions of moderate fighters,” he said.

Mr Cameron acknowledged that the fighters in a disparate array of rebel groups were not ‘’ideal partners’’ in the fight against IS.

Dr Lewis also warned that the government’s current strategy could result in several conflicts “within the same war-space” and might even spark a confrontation with the Russians.

Most of the south’s Conservative MPs were expected to vote in favour of air strikes except Dr Lewis and also Isle of Wight MP Andrew Turner.

Labour’s Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead was also expected to vote against.

The Prime Minister set out his case for military action against IS, who he warned were ‘’plotting to kill us and to radicalise our children right now’’.

He said the Commons faced a choice between backing RAF action against the group in its Syrian stronghold or sitting back and waiting for a terrorist attack on Britain’s streets and that delay would simply give IS time to grow stronger.

Critics disputed claims that 70,000 moderate fighters would be able to take on IS on the ground and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn warned against an ‘’ill-thought-out rush to war’’.

Mr Corbyn, who opposed military action but offered his MPs a free vote, said Mr Cameron’s arguments ‘’simply do not stack up’’.