Britain needs to help find a "strong man" to run Libya who can create a safe haven for migrants, a Conservative former minister has said.

Sir Edward Leigh insisted the UK has brought "death and destruction" to the region by undermining authoritarian leaders including Colonel Gaddafi in Libya, Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Syria's Bashar Assad.

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The Gainsborough MP said lessons must be learned from previous military interventions as efforts are made to ease the refugee and migrant crisis engulfing Europe.

Sir Edward made the comments as he warned MPs there must be a "reality check" over the strength of the new Libyan Government of National Accord led by prime minister-designate Fayez Sarraj.

Speaking in the Commons, Sir Edward said Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and his Labour counterpart Hilary Benn used "grand, eloquent terms" to speak about the Libyan administration - including referring to a house of representatives.

But he said: "Any member of the British public watching the news at 10 yesterday would have seen our Foreign Secretary and the prime minister of national accord holed up in a naval base, unable to leave it because they control none of the country.

"Apparently they now control three ministerial buildings in a country the size of western Europe. Can we have a reality check, please?

"Can the Government at last realise that its bid to undermine authoritarian leaders, such as Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi - who had a deal with the Italian government to return migrants - and now Assad, has just involved the region in death and destruction?

"So can we just learn the lessons, try and find a strong man and do what the chairman of the Home Affairs Committee (Labour MP Keith Vaz) wants, and what we all want ... to find some way of creating some kind of safe haven for migrants to be returned?"

Mr Hammond replied: "The Chinese have a saying that 'the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step' and I'd urge you to view this process in that context, and self-evidently I did manage to get out of the naval base in Tripoli yesterday and return to these shores.

"But I think you're being a little harsh on prime minister Sarraj and what he has achieved.

"There is a process going on whereby militias which only a couple of weeks ago were threatening to shoot down any aircraft seeking to enter the airport in Tripoli bringing his government back into the city, to now patrolling the streets outside that naval base, who were present on the ground when I landed in Tripoli yesterday.

"They have recognised and they have given a tentative consent to this Government process to go forward and its success will depend on prime minister Sarraj making the right judgments and being patient enough to bring all the relevant parties with him as he develops a plan for his government."

Mr Hammond visited the troubled North African state on Monday in a show of support for Mr Sarraj.