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The home secretary has defended the government鈥檚 strategy to combat the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

鈥淲e've not been making things up on the hoof,鈥� said Theresa May in response to criticism by head of the defence select committee Julian Lewis.

鈥淚 don't accept that it hasn't been coherent enough.鈥�

Ms May accepted the government needed to do more in Iraq and Syria to defeat IS, but said: 鈥淲e need to take parliament with us.鈥�

In a speech in Birmingham later, the Prime Minister will set out his approach to defeating Islamist extremism, which he will call "the struggle of our generation鈥�.

David Cameron will argue that the root causes of radicalisation must be tackled - and will point out that many of those convicted of terrorism were first influenced by non-violent extremists.

Ms May said measures in forthcoming legislation would include banning orders for groups, disruption orders for individuals and action against premises regularly being used by extremists.

But she said legislation was "only a very small part of [the strategy]" and there were other elements in terms of working with communities.

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