Reform UK's Greater Lincolnshire mayoral candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns has called for the return of capital punishment following the sentencing of Southport child killer Axel Rudakubana.
Speaking to GB News, Jenkyns suggested a public vote on reinstating the death penalty, arguing that British taxpayers should not "give a penny to evil people".
Rudakubana, 18, received a minimum term of 52-years for murdering three young girls at a dance class and attempting to kill 10 other people in July last year.
The teenager pleaded guilty to murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.
Dame Andrea Jenkyns has backed calls for capital punishment following the sentencing of Axel Rudakubana
PA / GB News
However, due to being 17-years-old at the time of the offence, Rudakubana avoided being handed a whole life order.
Delivering her verdict on capital punishment, Jenkyns told the People's Channel: "I do think the death penalty should be brought back, definitely. For severe cases of murders of children, multiple murders where they've admitted guilt, I think it's the only way.
"Why should the British taxpayer give a penny to these evil and people? To me, I don't want them on this earth, that's my view."
The Reform UK candidate claimed that Britain has been a "soft touch" for too long, and called for a change to the justice system.
Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced to a minimum term of 52 years in prison on ThursdayPAJenkyns stated: "We do need to get tougher in Britain, we've been soft touch Britain for too long, and that's got to change.
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"I don't care about the human rights of murderers, I care about the human rights of those children who have been murdered, and the rights of their parents that will never, ever see them again."
Offering a counter-argument as to why the UK should not see a return of capital punishment, former Conservative MP Steve Baker claimed that although Rudakubana "does not deserve to live", some criminals may result in being "unjustly killed by the state", if they are wrongly convicted.
Baker explained: "Some cases are so serious they absolutely test our capacity for mercy, and this is one such case. And I'm very clear in my own mind that this man does not deserve to live. For what he's done, it would be an open and shut case if we had the death penalty in the UK.
"But the reason that we don't is because of our values, because it is a final sentence, because people are unjustly convicted and there's no recourse if they have been killed by the state."
Jenkyns told GB News that there should be a 'public vote' on whether it should be reinstated
GB News
Noting Rudakubana's prison sentence, Baker told GB News that the Southport killer will most likely "beg for death" as the decades "roll by slowly" in prison.
Baker added: "I think we should just reflect on what it will mean for him to spend his life in jail, a minimum of 52 years before he can apply for parole. Obviously, I would prefer a whole life term along with his life sentence.
"But those decades are going to roll by slowly for that man, and I bet at times he will wish for death, and it will not come. And it's going to be a very cruel life for him, and rightly so."
In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Goose noted there was no evidence of any ideological motivation behind the attack.
