Rishi Sunak has rejected calls for the death penalty to be reinstated after new Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Lee Anderson backed its return.
In an interview with The Spectator magazine a few days before his surprise appointment to Mr Sunak’s top team on Tuesday, Mr Anderson said he would back the return of capital punishment because “nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed”.
“100% success rate,” the outspoken MP for Ashfield added.
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But probed on Mr Anderson’s comments during a visit to Cornwall on Thursday, the prime minister replied: “That’s not my view, that’s not the government’s view.
“But we are united in the Conservative Party in wanting to be absolutely relentless in bearing down on crime and making sure people are safe and feel safe.”
Explaining why he was not supporting the return of the death penalty, Mr Sunak said the government had “tightened up sentencing laws for the most violent criminals, they spend longer in prison”.
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Lee Anderson: New Tory deputy chairman says he would support return of death penalty
“It’s why we’re on our way to having 20,000 more police officers on our streets and we’re giving those police officers more powers to tackle crime, whether it’s stop and search or just this week in parliament we are giving police officers the power to tackle violent and extremist protesters,” he said.
“That’s because we want to make sure people are safe, they feel safe and that’s what we’re doing.”
The death penalty for murder in the UK was outlawed permanently in 1969 and then totally abolished for all crimes in 1998.
The last people executed in Britain were Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans on 13 August 1964.
The UK has signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the restoration of the death penalty.
But Mr Anderson argued that heinous crimes where the perpetrators are clearly identifiable should be punished by execution.
He pointed to the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in 2013 by Islamist extremists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.
The former was given a whole life term, meaning he will die in prison, and the latter was jailed for a minimum of 45 years for running over and stabbing the British Army soldier in southeast London in broad daylight.
Mr Anderson told the magazine: “Now I’d be very careful on that one [the return of the death penalty] because you’ll get the certain groups saying ‘You can never prove it’.
“Well, you can prove it if they have videoed it and are on camera – like the Lee Rigby killers.
“I mean: they should have gone, same week. I don’t want to pay for these people.”
Mr Anderson has a history of controversial comments, including questioning if food bank users have genuine need and criticising England football players for taking the knee in protest at racism.
The new Conservative Party deputy chairman has compared the government to “the band on the Titanic” for its handling of small boat crossings and said migrants arriving unlawfully in Britain should be returned the “same day” to where they came from.
A former Labour councillor before converting to the Tories, Mr Anderson said that despite facing criticism in some quarters for his opinions, he found voters often agreed with him.
“If I say something that is supposedly outrageous in that place [the Commons], I get back to Ashfield on a Thursday, people will come out of the shops and say ‘You say what I’m thinking’,” he added.
“Maybe some of my colleagues think I’m a little bit too divisive.
“But I’m of the mind that half the population will hate you, whatever colour you wear.”
Mr Anderson, a former miner, is popular among grassroot party members and was voted favourite backbench MP of 2022 in a survey by Conservative Home.
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But one Tory MP had choice words over the appointment, telling Sky’s deputy political editor Sam Coates that Mr Anderson is “everything that is wrong with the Conservative brand presently”.
The MP added: “He seems to rejoice in deliberately provoking and making aggressive simplistic statements that fail to recognise the complexities of the issues facing the country.
“If this is the new Tory party, many will be forgiven for deserting it.”
Another Conservative MP said: “We thought Liz Truss had killed the right of the party.
“Nobody knew Rishi had an ace card up his sleeve by making Lee Anderson the face of the right, putting the final nail in its coffin.”
Labour also attacked the appointment, with Zarah Sultana saying the Conservatives were “scraping the barrel” to fill government appointments.
While the SNP’s Justice spokesperson, Stuart McDonald MP said: “A party that appoints someone espousing views like this such as Lee Anderson to a senior role is not a party that deserves to be taken seriously, and is certainly not one fit for government.”
But Nigel Adams, the Tory MP for Selby and Ainsty, hailed the decision as a “clever appointment” by the prime minister, adding: “He understands why people voted Conservative in 2019 and what makes them tick.”
Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt also defended the Conservative Party’s new deputy chairman, telling MPs he should be known as “he stands up for me Lee” rather than “30p Lee”.
Mr Anderson will work under Greg Hands, who replaced Nadhim Zahawi as chairman after he was sacked over his handling of his tax affairs.
