'The dreadful killing of a mum and her daughters must allow us to vote on the death penalty' - Kelvin MacKenzie

Whoever is convicted is likely to be sentenced to spend the rest of their life in jail.

We, as taxpayers, could be supplying a warm cell and three meals a day for the best part of six decades.

The cost over that period will be many millions.

All my life I have been in favour of the death penalty.

I recognise we have a Parliament which will never vote this through.

That doesn’t make them right, and nor does it reflect how I believe the public would vote in a referendum.

MPs don’t want you to have your say on this issue.

They didn’t want you to have your say on Brexit. It was for the same reason; they couldn’t be sure of the result.

I don’t want the death penalty brought in because I think it will deter others.

I accept there are evil people out there who won’t be put off their murderous thoughts by any kind of deterrent.

I want it introduced on the basis of vengeance.

Literally taking away the life of somebody because they took the life of another.

My feeling is they have lost the right to stroll around whether that’s in a prison, on release, the street.

My heart breaks for John Hunt who found his family slaughtered in their home.

And I can see an argument that a family could have the final say on whether the killer should die.

But I can see no argument that says the killer should be able to factor in that the worst that can happen to them is a life sentence, which in some cases means being out and able to resume their life within a decade.

Bizarre isn’t it that a killer can decide to end their own lives through suicide but the state can’t decide to do it for them.

A strange aspect of this particularly shocking killing is that the suspect’s older brother, Bradley Clifford, 30, is a murderer.

Back in 2018, he was sentenced to a minimum of 23 years for chasing down a moped driver and passenger who had smashed a bottle on the bonnet of his prized Ford Mustang.

He knocked them off the moped, killing the passenger.

How do the parents feel about bringing into the world two children, one who had murdered and another who is suspected of murdering?

So, it’s okay as in the case of Bradley Clifford to carry out what in essence was a revenge murder but wrong for the nation.

I think it's quite wrong.

Our problem is that we can’t have a serious debate on the issue because Parliament won’t allow it.

All I would say is that the present system isn’t working for many voters either.