Prime minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson has slapped down suggestions that the UK could bring back capital punishment.
Three Reform UK MPs led calls to reinstate the death penalty after the Southport killer, Axel Rudakubana, was sentenced to 52 years behind bars.
He stabbed three little girls – Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine – to death in July, days before his 18th birthday.
According to defence minister John Healey, international law prevents life sentences being handed to anyone who committed crimes while under 18 years old.
Amid calls for a change to the law so Rudakubana would have to spend life in prison, Reform UK MP Lee Anderson posted a photo of a noose on social media with this caption: “This is what is required!”
Fellow members of Nigel Farage’s far-right party, Rupert Lowe and Richard Tice, also called for a national debate on the death penalty, which has not been used since 1964.
However, at a briefing with journalists this morning, a No.10 spokesperson said: “The government has no plans to bring back capital punishment.
“Parliament abolished the death penalty more than 50 years ago, and in free votes has consistently voted against it being restored in recent decades.
“In 1998, Parliament made clear in a free vote that it was opposed to the death penalty for all offences.”
The minimum age for the death penalty was raised to 18 years old in 1933, before the policy was abolished altogether in 1969.
The spokesman also told reporters that the government is hoping to progress the public inquiry into the stabbings – announced by Starmer earlier this week – as “quickly as time allows”.
He said the first step would be to “liaise with the families” as the government looks to prioritise a “comprehensive” investigation.
The representative from No.10 added that clearer timetable will be established when the government has consulted the coroner and given families the chance to respond.
The spokesperson also condemned Rudakubana after he disrupted court proceedings repeatedly yesterday and had to be sent out of the room.
The law is already set to change so criminals have to attend their own sentencing, so reporters asked if that would still be appropriate in cases like the Southport stabbings.
He said: “Killers who refuse to look grieving families in the eye as judges hand down their sentences are beyond cowardly.
“It is a twisted act of tormenting victims. Further, we are clarifying the law to end this.
“However, attendance may not always be appropriate.
“For instance, when a defendant is purposefully disruptive to proceedings or displays offensive behaviour, and it is for the court which will always have discretion to make whatever decisions are in the best interest of justice.”