UK PM Starmer rejects call for referendum on death penalty for foreign criminals: 'It is not the answer'

UK PM Keir Starmer.

Britain Prime Minister Keir Starmer shut down Rupert Lowe’s recommendation that the death penalty be reintroduced for foreign criminals and said it was "not the answer".

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday (12 November), the former Reform UK MP, who now sits as an independent, asked the prime minister if he would support holding a referendum on the matter, claiming that “every week we hear of a brutal murder, rape or stabbing” committed by “someone who should not be in our country to begin with”, according to a report by The Independent.

Keir Starmer shut down the suggestion, stating that “it is not the answer”. He added: “It didn’t work when it was in place, it led to the death of those it turned out in fact were innocent.”

English businessman Richard Branson supported Starmer's stance on death penalty and said he was right.

Taking to X, he posted, "Keir Starmer is right. The death penalty is never the answer for any country. It’s inhumane, costly & doesn’t deter crime. It has no place in the civilised world. Most of Europe abolished the death penalty decades ago & has been better, safer without it, while many countries that retain the death penalty continue to suffer high crime rates regardless."