I’d execute terrorists myself says Ukip leader
UKIP leader Paul Nuttall last night called for the return of the death penalty for terrorists and child killers – and volunteered to carry out the executions himself.
He said he would not flinch from personally opening the hangman’s trap door – or pulling the trigger.
Mr Nuttall backed a referendum on the issue and said it would result in the return of the death penalty, abolished in 1965.
The Ukip leader told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I would like to see the death penalty for terrorists and child killers.’
Asked if he was prepared to act as executioner, he replied: ‘Yes.’
Citing the killers of soldier Lee Rigby, who was stabbed to death in London in 2013, terrorists who targeted children, and Moors murderer Ian Brady, Mr Nuttall said: ‘For people who kill a (British) soldier and harm children, I would not have a problem doing it. I believe in capital punishment for treason. Opinion polls show the vast majority of people agree with me.’
Mr Nuttall, who stressed his support for capital punishment was a personal view, not Ukip policy, added: ‘If enough people called for a referendum on this we would be only too happy to give them one.’
His support for bringing back the death penalty puts him at odds with former party leader Nigel Farage who opposes it, mainly because of the risk of a mistake.
Until the Manchester bomb atrocity last Monday, Ukip’s election campaign had been a flop. After Brexit, most voters seem to regard the party as unnecessary and its leader as unappealing.
Now Mr Nuttall hopes that by ‘out-toughing’ Mr Farage, he could revive his party’s hopes.
Asked if he would support tagging all terror suspects, Mr Nuttall said: ‘Yes, why not? Until they have denounced this evil ideology.’
He would force new immigrants to sign a ‘contract’ and sit an ‘attitude test’ to prove they backed ‘British values’. If they failed, they would be kicked out.
If he is elected as an MP, would he help a female Muslim constituent who arrived at his surgery wearing a burka? Not unless she took it off, he said, adding: ‘Just as I can’t go into a bank wearing a balaclava.’
Euro MP Mr Nuttall, 40, is standing for parliament in Boston and Skegness.
He said: ‘What we say today, other parties will be saying in five years.’
‘The vast majority of people agree with me’