Tory MP asks government to consider ‘merits’ of bringing back death penalty

A Tory MP has called on the government to reintroduce hanging

Conservative MP John Hayes has asked the government to consider the "potential merits' of bringing back the death penalty, in the form of hanging, for particularly violent crimes. Hayes, who is MP for South Holland and the Deepings, believes that capital punishment "should be available to the courts" in cases such as that of Westminster Bridge attacker Khalid Masood, who was shot dead by police at the scene of the crime. Hayes told Lincolnshire Live: "If you look at the Westminster Bridge attacker, he was shot in cold-blood after someone had taken a proper decision to stop him. "If he had survived I think most of the British public would have been OK if he had received a fair trial and been hanged - most people would deem that appropriate." In a written question to parliament, the MP asked the justice secretary to "make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to reintroduce the death penalty to tackle violent crime". Justice minister Edward Argar stated the government "opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances and has no plans to reintroduce it" in response. Incredibly, Hayes also suggested that notorious serial killers Harold Shipman and Fred West killed themselves because "they knew that was the right thing for them to do." Gwynne Evans (24) and Peter Allen (21) were the last people to be sentenced to death in England and Wales in 1964, one year before capital punishment ended. They were executed in Strangeways Prison, Manchester, and Walton Prison, Liverpool, respectively. Although unused, the death penalty remained a legally defined punishment for offences such as treason, until it was completely abolished in 1998.