Romford’s MP has said he would back a debate in the House of Commons on bringing back the death penalty for murder.

A new version of the government’s petitions website has been launched, and any issue which receives 100,000 signatures will have to be debated by MPs.

One of the first has been launched by right-wing blogger Paul Staines, whose Guido Fawkes site is one of the most widely-read political blogs in the UK. The campaign calls for a debate on the reintroduction of the death penalty for child and police murderers.

Andrew Rosindell told the Recorder he believes in capital punishment.

‘Megaphone’

He said: “It should only be used in the worst cases of cruel murder and when someone is 100 per cent guilty. It should be there as a deterrent. The murder rate has shot up dramatically since capital punishment was abolished.”

He added: “There should be a debate on the issue, but the reality is that [former Prime Minister] Mr Blair signed us up to the Human Rights Act. Even if a majority votes for it, the Act would stop us bringing it in.

“I think if there was a referendum on the issue, the British people would vote to bring it back. Certainly in Romford, I know local people would back it.”

House of Commons leader Sir George Young said that the online petitions would be a “megaphone” for the views of the British people and the number of signatures needed to trigger a debate would be reviewed once the system was operating. The epetitions.direct.gov.uk site went live today. The terms “death penalty” and “capital punishment” are among the most popular topics on social networking site Twitter at the moment.