Bring back hanging! Capital punishment still supported 50 years after Britain’s last execution
On the 50th anniversary of the last state execution in Britain, a YouGov poll has found that 45 per cent of people would bring it back – with UKIP supporters the most enthusiastic.
Although the average number of those in favour of state execution has fallen since 2010, when it was 51 per cent, nearly three quarters of UKIP votes (73 per cent) and just over half of Conservatives (54 per cent) said they would still support the death penalty for murder cases.
To put that into context, David Cameron's July approval rating was 44 per cent, according to Ipsos Mori. Ed Miliband's was 33 per cent, as was Nigel Farage. Michael Gove's was 22 per cent.
Liberal Democrats were the most against the move, with 58 per cent opposing it, while 50 per cent of Labour supporters said no.
Lethal injection came out as the most popular method across party allegiances, backed by 51 per cent, but UKIP supporters had 77 per cent approving its use on people convicted for “serious crimes such as murder”.
Electric chair was the next most popular, with 25 per cent of all those surveyed giving it the thumbs up, again led by UKIP (42 per cent) however two-thirds of respondents disapproved. Hanging received marginally less support with a 23 per cent approval rate, while the gas chamber was OK'd by 19 per cent. Firing squad was approved by 17 per cent.
Beheading was the least popular option, getting just nine per cent of the vote, although 16 per cent of UKIP supporters said it was acceptable.
The YouGov poll sampled 1,942 people.