BOLTON MP Yasmin Qureshi has called for an end what she calls Britain’s ‘secret wars’.

Writing in the New Statesman, the Bolton South East MP said she feels the country is still in the ‘dark ages’ when it comes to the transparency of what our special forces are doing abroad.

She said: “There have been numerous media reports about UK special forces operating around the world, but never any official confirmation from the government.

“In March a leaked memo from Jordan suggested the SAS has been operating in Libya since the beginning of this year, but Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond has only admitted 'military advisers' are present. Despite the government’s chicanery, it seems that UK forces are involved in a sustained military intervention there.

“When the Prime Minister wanted to carry out airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, he came to Parliament and openly made his case.

"Yet when it comes to special forces there is barely an official comment. I’ve spent the past few months on the Foreign Affairs Committee trying to interrogate the government about this, but to no avail.

“We’re not talking about the kind of hostage rescue missions and other quick deployments that the SAS is famous for. We’re talking about long-term missions, including in places where there has been no debate about a decision to go to war.

“Following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the intervention in Libya in 2011 and the failed Syria intervention vote in 2013, the government knows how unpopular war has become.

“And so special forces are increasingly being used to get around this problem, acting as a substitute for a conventional deployment that would attract public scrutiny. Libya is a clear example of this – a creeping intervention carried out by the backdoor.”

The Labour MP believes any decisions to go to war should be subject to “full public debate and parliamentary scrutiny” regardless of the method being used.

She says the first step should be to strengthen and expand the convention that means the use of military force should be subject to a debate in the commons — a convention she believes is under threat from the current Tory government.

She added: “Public scepticism on war cannot simply be sidestepped.

“If the government feels it needs to use military force, it must go to the public and win the argument.

“Not only because it is the democratic and transparent thing to do, but because a war that lacks legitimacy can be lost at home to a critical public just as easily as it can to the enemy abroad.”