PMQs row explodes over call to bring back the death penalty

The British people should be asked if they want to bring back the death penalty following a series of horrific crimes, Sir Keir Starmer has been told. An MP called for "a legally binding referendum" on whether to restore the death penalty, as he questioned the Prime Minister in the House of Commons. But Sir Keir rejected the idea.

MP Rupert Lowe asked: "Every week we hear of a brutal, murder, rape or stabbing, far too often perperated by someone who should not be in our country to begin with. Does the Prime Minister agree that for cases where the guilt is so undeniable, crime is so monstrous, the evil so irredeemable, the re-introduction of the death penalty for both foreign and domestic criminals should be put to the British people in a legally binding referendum?"

Keir Starmer told him "any attack should be condemed" and dealt with by the police "but re-introducing the death penalty is not the answer to this".

The Prime Minister said that when the death penalty existed, some innocent people were killed. But he said his Government would support the police to improve the way they investigated crimes.

The last executions in the UK took place in 1964. The death penalty for murder was suspended in England, Wales and Scotland in 1965 and abolished permanently in 1969. Technically, the death penalty remained legally possible for some offences such as treason after this date, but there was never any serious attempt to impose it.