Brendan Clarke-Smith: Nottinghamshire MP expresses support for death penalty

A Nottinghamshire MP has expressed his support for the use of capital punishment.

Brendan Clarke-Smith, the Conservative MP for Bassetlaw, shared a clip on X, formerly Twitter, of Margaret Thatcher stating she would back the death penalty.

“[This] has always been my personal view and it is one I make no apologies for,” Mr Clarke-Smith said.

His comments drew widespread criticism on social media.

The anonymous lawyer and author The Secret Barrister said Mr Clarke-Smith “has no business being anywhere near public life”.

He made the comments after prolific child serial killer Lucy Letby was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others.

The former nurse was jailed for life and will never be released.

Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield and deputy chairman of the Conservative party, has previously expressed his support for capital punishment.

In his weekly column, Mr Clarke-Smith later claimed polls have “consistently shown that many, and some would say most, people support capital punishment - at least in principle.”

He clarified: “It therefore seems strange that support for capital punishment is portrayed by many in the public eye as being some sort of extreme and minority-held opinion.

“...many of us will point to individual cases where the crime has been so horrific that we believe it should be a life for a life. This is particularly the case with crimes committed against children.”

Critics of the death penalty claim it is not an effective deterrent for crime and is irreversible in cases of miscarriages of justice.

A continuous YouGov poll of between 1,600 and 1,800 UK adults in July found 55 per cent supported the reintroduction of the death penalty for the murder of a child.

A total of 33 per cent would oppose the death penalty and 12 per cent were unsure.

However, a similar poll on whether the death penalty should be reintroduced in all cases of murder found the majority, 47 per cent, would oppose capital punishment.

Mr Clarke-Smith said whilst he supports the death penalty in principle, he will not be campaigning for its return, nor does he believe it will.

“I think that ship has sailed and it’s not a productive way of using parliamentary time,” he said.

“For many of us, there will be some crimes where a prison sentence simply doesn’t seem enough.

“Many also believe a life sentence should actually mean life, not a short sentence and then out of prison halfway through.”

A total of 55 countries retain and use the death penalty to punish criminals, according to human rights organisation Amnesty International.

The death penalty for murder in the UK was outlawed permanently in 1969 and then totally abolished for all crimes in 1998.