South Swindon MP Julia Drown (Lab) said: "My first thoughts are with our troops and their families at home in Swindon. We all hope they come back safely and as soon as possible.

"My thoughts are also with the Iraqis who will be understandably living in fear during this period, many of whom want the coalition force to succeed.

"War is always a misery and what we all need to hope for is that the coalition, which is supported by 35 countries, can together succeed swiftly and with as little pain as possible to everyone."

North Swindon MP, Michael Wills (Lab), said: "It's very sad that it's come to this. All we can do now is try to ensure civilian casualties are minimised and the war is as short as possible.

"We have got to deliver on what we said, which was disarmament and an end to the regime.

"When the time comes we will do everything we can to rebuild Iraq as a stable democracy after years of dictatorship by Saddam Hussein.

"I wish securing disarmament was able to be achieved peacefully, but we were left with no alternative. We gave him every opportunity and followed the diplomatic route for 12 years, even as late as last week we were looking actively for ways to avoid conflict."

North Wiltshire MP James Gray (Con) said: "I very much hope it is a successful and clean war I'm in favour of the coalition-led force because it's in the interests of world peace that we succeed."

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