Gravesham MP Adam Holloway visited 'the world's most dangerous state' before voting against military action on the Islamic State (ISIL).

Mr Holloway travelled to Kurdistan in Iraq to visit Kurdish Peshmerga fighters based near to the town of Gwer in northern Iraq, which is being held by ISIL militants, last month.

The MP said: "I had a week in Gravesham with nothing in my diary so I went out there to see what was going on before the vote."

Mr Holloway described how Sirwan Barzani, the Peshmerga commander said to him: "Imagine this, you wake up one morning and find you have a 1,000 kilometre border with the most dangerous group of people in the world."

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He then went on to show him a disarmed explosive device.

Mr Holloway said: "It was a simple electronic gadget whose components are accessible to civilians across the world, attached to a cheap blue Nokia mobile phone which acts as a detonator.

"Mr Barzani's men say they have found hundreds of them on their frontline, planted by ISIL."

Describing the Peshmerga base, Mr Holloway added: "It is surrounded by home-made gun trucks, and a large force of men equipped to fight in mountains at short range.

"When the scale and quality of weaponry the jihadists had seized from the Iraqi army was first revealed, it was said the group's fighters did not possess the training to use it, and Isil men were caricatured as simple, wild-eyed fanatics.

"The uncomfortable reality is that not only can they use this sophisticated military kit, they can also fix it when it breaks."

On September 26 MPs voted over the proposals to carry out RAF strikes on the militants - the air strikes were backed by 524 MPs with just 43 voting against the action.

Mr Holloway was one of just six Tories to vote against the strikes.

He said: "There is a huge amount we can do, but that should mostly involve encouraging and enabling others. This should not be a re-run of Iraq 1991 - yes, it was a very wide coalition but still American-led.

"The lead should come from the within the region.

"The security of people living in Gravesham and across the United Kingdom depends on our getting this right and doing the right thing in the right way."