Rishi Sunak has rejected calls for the return of the death penalty made by the new deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.
Lee Anderson said he backed the death penalty because “nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed”.
He told The Spectator magazine that capital punishment has a “100% success rate” when it came to stopping repeat offenders.
But speaking to reporters during a visit to Cornwall on Thursday, the prime minister said that was “not my view” and “not the government’s view”.
Sunak added: “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.”
The prime minister said his government had “tightened up sentencing laws for the most violent criminals” and “they spend longer in prison”.
The death penalty for murder in the UK was outlawed permanently in 1969, with it totally abolished for all crimes in 1998.
Anderson was the most eye-catching appointment made as part of Sunak’s mini-reshuffle on Monday.
A former Labour councillor before converting to the Tories, he has been no stranger to controversy since being elected as MP for Ashfield in 2019.
He has criticised food bank users and also the England men’s football team for taking the knee in protest at racism.
Earlier, children’s minister Claire Coutinho said that while she was a “big fan” of Anderson, she didn’t back the return of capital punishment.