New Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson calls for return of death penalty 

The new deputy chairman of the Conservative Party has called for the return of the death penalty, saying it has a ‘100 per cent success rate’ in stopping criminals offending again.

Lee Anderson also said migrants crossing the Channel in small boats should be returned to France ‘the same day’ on a Royal Navy frigate.

And he criticised his party for being ‘too scared’ to reform the welfare system.

The MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, a former coal miner who defected from Labour in 2018, was this week promoted to the key role in the Tories’ general election campaign.

The pugnacious bruiser, who recently challenged a protester outside Parliament to a fight, has been brought in to sharpen the Tories’ appeal among working-class voters in Red Wall seats.

In an interview in today’s Spectator, he said he would bring back the death penalty – last used in 1964 – for the most serious crimes, citing the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in 2013 as an example.

He told the magazine: ‘Nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed… 100 per cent success rate.’

Mr Anderson also said migrants arriving in Britain ‘are seeing a country where the streets are paved with gold – where, once you land, they are not in that manky little f***ing scruffy tent. They are going to be in a four-star hotel.’

He told the magazine: ‘I’d send them straight back the same day… and they’d just stop coming.’ Mr Anderson also said the Tories were ‘too scared’ to tighten the welfare system because ‘it’s like picking on poor people… when, actually, most working-class people would agree with me’.

Tory chairman Greg Hands said: ‘Lee Anderson is a fantastic asset for the party. He is a man of great integrity and fantastic background.’

The new deputy chairman of the Conservative Party also said migrants crossing the Channel in small boats should be returned to France ‘the same day’