Nearly half of Londoners back bringing back the death penalty for terrorist murders, a shock poll reveals today.
The YouGov survey for the Standard showed 49 per cent of adults in the capital support capital punishment for murder during terrorist attacks, such as the killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby.
Men are more hardline, with 55 per cent believing terrorist killers should be executed, compared to 42 per cent of women.
Older people are more likely to favour the death penalty for such offences, according to the poll carried out after the Paris atrocity in which three terrorists killed 17 people.
Fifty-four per cent of Londoners aged 40 and over supported the re-introduction of the death penalty which was abolished in 1965, while the figure for the 25 to 39-year-old age group was 44 per cent, and 38 per cent among 18 to 24-year-olds.
The findings, which also showed a large proportion of Londoners, 42 per cent, opposed to the death penalty even for deadly bombings, sparked calls for a debate at Westminster on toughening Britain’s anti-terror laws.
“Parliament should listen carefully and be prepared to debate this,” said Enfield North Conservative MP Nick de Bois, though he stressed it would not currently be allowed under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Esher and Walton Conservative MP Dominic Raab, though, warned: “Bringing back the death penalty would be the propaganda coup of the century for Al-Qaeda and ISIL.”
Tanya Abraham, of YouGov, stressed the issue “clearly divided” people.
She added: “More men, Conservative and UKIP supporters, and older people think they should bring it back, while more women, Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters think it should remain off the statute books.”
Prime ministers and foreign ministers were meeting in London today to discuss how to step up the battle against the Islamic State (previously known as ISIL) which has seized control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
David Cameron told his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi that the UK would do “everything we can” to stop the flow of foreign fighters who were travelling to join IS and cause “mayhem”.
Speaking in No 10 he said: “The threat from extremist terror you face in Iraq is also a threat we face here in the UK.”
The focus of the talks were on military support for Iraqi government and Kurdish fighters and cutting off IS finances.
Mr al-Abadi insisted his country’s forces had reversed IS advances and wanted to wipe out the extremist group but was facing a “real crisis”.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond stressed it would be “months” before Iraqi security forces were ready to take on IS fighters in significant new combat operations.
Hundreds of young British Muslim men, and some women, have travelled to join IS and other terror groups and a small number are feared to have returned to the UK with plans to launch terror strikes here.
US-led coalition forces have carried out more than 1,000 air strikes inside Iraq - around 100 conducted by RAF aircraft - against IS and other terror groups.
* YouGov interviewed 1,034 adults in London between January 19 and 21.
@nicholascecil
