Lee Anderson wants a death‑penalty referendum; Farage says ‘absolutely not’, and Reform UK now looks like two blokes arguing in Wetherspoons — one demanding hanging, the other just trying to finish his pint.
Reform UK squabbling over the death penalty like it’s who left the toilet seat up — Farage saying ‘no hanging’, Anderson saying ‘bring the rope’, and the whole party looking like a family drama with manifestos.
The MP for Ashfield reckons Brits would vote to bring back the death penalty — basically, ‘stick it on a ballot, and the public will turn up with a rope and a packed lunch.
Anderson warned that a death‑penalty referendum wouldn’t just stir debate — it would tear the country open, drawing Brexit‑level battle lines all over again.
He said that despite the chaos a referendum might unleash, he’d still back letting the public deliver the final verdict — sharp, clear, and unapologetic.
Anderson insisted the public would back the death penalty if asked directly — and stressed that Parliament, in his view, never would.
Anderson says the public would vote for the death penalty, Parliament never would — and rightly so, because the death penalty went out with the ark; it was barbaric.
His intervention puts him squarely against Farage, who refuses to back the death penalty because the risk of miscarriages of justice is too high.
Well, at least someone has some common sense.
Farage’s stance here is simply the recognition that miscarriages of justice happen, and once the state executes someone, there’s no undoing it. That’s not politics, that’s basic humanity.
His comments show a striking disregard for the dangers of miscarriages of justice — which is exactly why many believe the death penalty should remain firmly in the past.
Many people were hanged and later proven innocent.
Once you take a life, you can’t bring that person back — there’s no appeal, no correction, no second chance.
“And let’s face it — if you take a life, you’re stepping into the same moral territory as the person with the noose.
An eye for an eye only guarantees one thing — everyone ends up blind.
The Reform leader has made clear that capital punishment won’t be party policy, casting the death penalty, abortion and assisted dying as issues of personal conscience rather than political lines.
Farage noted in June 2025 that Britain has uncovered hundreds of serious miscarriages of justice since the early 1970s.
He said he couldn’t ever support it, while recognising that others take a different view.
Anderson argued that on issues of conscience, party members can disagree without damaging the party’s overall platform.
I could never vote for a party that believes the death penalty is the way to go.
It’s not about party loyalty; it’s about the irreversibility of state power and the long, painful history of innocent people being executed. When a party signals comfort with that risk, it’s entirely reasonable for someone to say: that’s a red line for me.
There’s no referendum on the table, and Reform hasn’t committed to holding one.
Anderson talks as though a referendum is coming, despite none being proposed and Reform making no commitment to one.
A national vote would still need political and parliamentary backing — and even a ‘yes’ result wouldn’t restore the death penalty. MPs would still have to pass detailed legislation to bring it back.
“Bringing back executions would directly clash with Britain’s international human rights obligations.
The UK is bound by ECHR protocols that ban the death penalty outright — even in wartime.
Bringing it back would mean rewriting UK law and unpicking international commitments — and every British government has consistently opposed the death penalty overseas.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 