MAIDSTONE and Weald MP Ann Widdecombe has spoken out in support of the death penalty, arguing it would act as the “supreme deterrent” to murder.

The former Home Office minister said that although she did not expect the death penalty to be brought back, a strong moral case could be made for it on the grounds that innocent lives would be saved.

Miss Widdecombe stressed: "If it is a deterrent, there is a moral choice to be made between saving the lives of the innocent and taking the lives of the guilty. I do not think you can avoid that choice. If you do, then you are condemning innocent people."

The claim that juries would be reluctant to convict defendants of murder if the punishment was the death penalty was not borne out by the evidence, she added.

The MP has been a long-standing supporter of the death penalty and has consistently voted for it to be restored when MPs have discussed it.

“If you look at what happened in the five years after the abolition of the death penalty when we still had capital and non-capital murder, there was a 125 per cent increase in the number of convictions for capital crimes,” she said.

The MP stressed she was not making her comments in connection with the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman but said: “If you had a public referendum on it [bringing it back] a majority would be in favour. But this Government’s first act was to pass responsibility for that kind of decision to Europe.”