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Tory pact with Farage ‘would be unassailable’ warns pollster with 3-way split at top
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A leading pollster has warned that if Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and the Tories were to form a pact they would be “unassailable” at the next election based on current surveys.
Techne UK’s chief executive Michela Morizzo made her comment as the company’s latest weekly tracker poll for The Independent had close to a three-way split at the top with Labour on 25 per cent (down 1), just one point ahead of the Tories (down 1) and Reform UK (up 1) both on 24 per cent.
It meant that the combined centre right vote in the UK is 48 per cent, which if brought together would reset British politics.
Meanwhile, the Lib Dems were also up one to 13 per cent while the Greens remained level on 7 per cent.
Ms Morizzo’s observations came less than 24 hours after Reform UK’s former deputy leader Ben Habib became the first senior figure associated with the party to reveal that Mr Farage’s plan has always been to force a merger or pact with the Tories.
He told a podcast with economist Mark Littlewood for Popular Conservatism (Popcon), that Mr Farage’s strategy was to have “a strong negotiating hand” by 2028.
He said: “Nigel’s aim is to set up the best possible negotiating position he can between now and 2028 for the Conservative Party. Take as many Conservative MPs, grassroots, members, candidates, councillors, whatever. Weaken the tory party as much as he possibly can, get to 2028 and then he will try and do a deal. If he succeeds and gets very strong he will do that deal from a position of strength.”
Privately allies of Mr Farage have also told The Independent he wants to “engineer a reverse takeover” of the Tories with Reform UK.
The latest Techne findings have revealed that Reform UK is picking up a lot of support from other parties. This includes more than one in four (26 per cent) Tory voters from the 2024 election, and one in seven (14 per cent) of Lib Dem voters from the election.
Ms Morizzo described the collapse in Labour’s support just seven months after being elected as almost unprecedented.
She said: “The Labour Party decline continues this week with Sir Keir Starmer’s party losing another point in national vote share dropping down to just 25 per cent. This in itself is an almost unheard of low polling share for a governing party, particularly as it has only held power for just seven months.
“Once again this highlights that Kemi Badenoch is still struggling to give her party a strong and well defined vision. Further to this it is once again Reform UK who are growing in national vote share to 24 per cent. This is now truly a three-way split for these three parties.”
However, she added: “Finally one must also note that the centre right of the Conservatives and Reform UK if placed together hold an unassailable 48 per cent. What will this scenario lead to? Only time will tell.”
Tributes have been paid to a woman, who died following a serious assault in Plymouth.
Claire Butler was pronounced dead in the early hours of Thursday having been taken to hospital after she was found injured on West Hoe Road, just before 21:00 GMT on Wednesday.
Her family paid tribute, describing her as an “energetic and beautiful soul, someone who cared for everyone”.
Devon and Cornwall Police arrested Paul Antony Butler, 53, on suspicion of murder on Thursday.
A large police cordon was set up in the area and extensive searches were carried out on Thursday with dozens of officers involved.
On Friday, the cordon was lifted and officers were deployed to Marsh Mills, which the force confirmed was “part of ongoing inquiries into the Plymouth murder investigation”.
Ms Butler was in her forties and a lecturer at the University of Plymouth.
Hundreds of comments have flooded social media from her students, both past and present.
Politics
Trump Team Is “Very, Very Sceptical” Of UK Government, Says Labour Peer Invited To Inauguration
President Trump speaks at a ball after his inauguration, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington (Credit: AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
3 min read
Lord Glasman, the only UK Labour Party figure to be invited to President Trump’s inauguration, has told PoliticsHome that the team around Trump is “very, very sceptical about the Labour government”.
“They want an alliance with the UK, à la Churchill or Thatcher,” Glasman said. “They are pro-worker, so they hate globalisation. A big part of MAGA square is working-class, and people like Steve Bannon and [JD] Vance are very engaged with that.
“They are looking for the government to be their partner, but they don’t see any indication that they are.”
Labour peer Maurice Glasman is a founder of the Blue Labour movement, which combines a left-wing stance on the economy with conservative views on cultural issues.
In an exclusive interview with PoliticsHome, he said he received his invitation to the inauguration from the Republican National Committee. “It was an invitation from the Republican Party, really, in the name of transatlantic dialogue,” he said.
Asked why he had been singled out for an invitation, Glasman explained that JD Vance, now US Vice-President, had sent the peer his book Hillbilly Elegy eight years ago and said he admired Blue Labour.
“I had no idea who he was. So we had two or three email exchanges that were very polite and measured, discussing globalisation and the status of workers who would be best-placed to represent that,” Glasman said.
When he arrived in the US, Glasman said the Trump team were “extraordinarily friendly” to him. “They even presented me with a handmade pair of cowboy boots,” he added.
In attending the inauguration and Nigel Farage’s party overlooking the White House, Glasman confirmed that he met Vance, the Vice-President; Bannon, the former Trump strategist; and Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State. “They really opened the doors,” he said.
Glasman spent a significant amount of time with Farage in the US. “He is a Republican politician superstar over here. The queues were lined up, shaking his hand, offering him money, saying, ‘Any support you need, Nigel, we’re with you.’”
The peer said: “Nigel, I’ve got to say, was extremely generous in introducing me to people. I just had a chat with him and said, ‘We’re patriots, right? So, let’s just represent our country as best we can.’ He did that. He wasn’t partisan at all.“
Asked how No 10 has felt about his attendance, Glasman replied: “It’s too early to judge. I’m obviously trying to communicate with them as best I can.
“I’m not expecting them to do cartwheels when the Prime Minister wasn’t invited, the Foreign Secretary wasn’t. It’s a difficult moment for them, and I’m just doing my best to represent Labour and the government in the way that I can.”
While there have been many comments on social media about the significance of Keir Starmer not being invited to the inauguration, no UK prime minister appears to have visited the United States at the time of any presidential inauguration since records of visits began.
It was notable, however, that Glasman as a Labour figure was invited. And in a break with tradition, Trump did invite selected world leaders to join him on his inauguration day.
The peer told PoliticsHome he had spent his visit “defending the Labour Party” by telling those around Trump: “You’ve mistaken us – we’re not a liberal party, we’re the Labour Party.”
Glasman also said he is planning to start a show on GB News – “Blue Labour versus Reform” – which will see him debate with Farage on a weekly basis.
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People staying overnight in Edinburgh could face a tourist tax from next summer under plans being considered by the city’s council.
Council members are considering introducing a 5% levy on people staying in hotels, bed and breakfasts and other accommodation, including holiday lets.
A full council meeting is scheduled for Friday but due to the red weather warning in place for parts of Scotland, it will be held remotely rather than in person.
Council leader Jane Meagher has previously described the levy as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to invest in the city as it has the potential of raising up to £50m a year for the authority.
It comes after Holyrood last year approved legislation giving councils across Scotland the ability to introduce such a charge.
Under the plans, the charge would be applied to bookings made after 1 May this year for stays from 24 July next year.
But the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) warned councillors against a “headlong rush to be the first” to introduce the charge.
Garry Clark, FSB’s development manager for Edinburgh and the East of Scotland, said: “Edinburgh’s small accommodation providers haven’t yet been given all the information necessary to plan for the potential impact on them.”
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He added: “It’s not too late for the council to make the sensible decision to pause the scheme and plan properly for its smooth implementation, rather than engaging in a headlong rush to be the first to implement the levy.”
Ms Meagher said last week she was “focused on delivering a scheme that will be both fit for purpose and workable” and that would also “benefit our city, our residents and our visitors for many years to come”.
The council leader said: “At all stages of this process, we’ve listened to, and taken account of, the views of residents, industry and other stakeholders – and we mustn’t lose sight of just how much positivity there is for the scheme across all of these groups.”
Politics
NFU President launches fresh attack on Labour over ‘abhorrent’ inheritance tax raid on farmers: ‘Completely inhumane!’
President of the National Farmers’ Union Tom Bradshaw has launched a fresh attack on the Labour Government, claiming their inheritance tax raid on farmers is “unfair” and “abhorrent”.
Today, Bradshaw and NFU Cymru President Aled Jones handed in their petition on behalf of the union to 10 Downing Street, calling for a change in the proposed legislation.
Over 270,000 people have signed the petition in support of farmers, with Bradshaw warning on the petition’s official page that the tax will “deal a hammer blow to farming families” across Britain.
Speaking to GB News, Bradshaw told reporter Katherine Forster that the Government “are the only ones” who believe the raid is a “fair deal”.
Bradshaw launched a fresh attack on Labour, claiming the inheritance tax changes are ‘completely inhumane’
GB News / PA
Bradshaw told the People’s Channel: “Over 270,000 people have supported our petition. We’d like to thank every one of them for their support.
“It means so much to the farming industry, but food production is something that everyone in this country relies on.”
Detailing the impact on the farming industry, Bradshaw declared that confidence in the agricultural industry has been “completely broken”.
He explained: “Nobody wants to invest for the future and without that investment, there is no food security.
Bradshaw and NFU Cymru president Aled Jones handed in their petition to 10 Downing Street today
Pa
“We’ve seen the supermarkets all come out saying they’ve got serious concerns for the resilience of our food supply systems.”
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Expressing particular concern for elderly farmers, Bradshaw warned Labour that giving them “no time to plan” in how they will pass their farms on before the changes come into place is “completely inhumane”.
Bradshaw fumed: “These people that are in our community, that have given a lifetime to producing this country’s food, have no ability to plan. We’ve got 94-year-olds that still own the farm because until October 30, the very best tax advice was to keep the farm until death.
“They have no ability to plan their way through this. The abhorrent changes proposed are completely inhumane.”
He stated: “Putting those people in that position is completely unfair, and we have to get the Government to urgently look at changing the proposals so that we can take them out of the eye of this storm.”
Bradshaw told GB News that confidence in the agricultural industry is ‘completely broken’
GB News
Revealing the union’s next steps in their campaign against Labour’s changes, Bradshaw told GB News that more than “100 events” are planned for tomorrow, for farmers to “thank the public for their support” and get their message across to Government.
Delivering his verdict on the tax raid, NFU Cymru president Aled Jones claimed that there is a “sense of betrayal” felt by farmers, following the Labour Goverment’s announcement in October’s Budget.
Jones said: “We were told a while ago that family farms were integral to this country, and farming and delivering food security was an essential part of national security. And farmers really took those messages and they were proud to deliver for this country.
“But there’s a sense of betrayal. It’s this utter sense of betrayal at the moment to think that those historic contributions that farmers made to this country is now being taken away from them. The breakup of family farms will be devastating for this country.”
Ukraine reportedly hit a Russian oil refinery and targeted Moscow during an attack involving a wave of at least 121 drones, one of the largest single operations of its kind during the war.
Video footage verified by the BBC shows a fireball rising over the refinery and pumping station in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, which Ukrainian officials said was a target.
Russia said it had shot down 121 drones that had targeted 13 regions, including Ryazan and Moscow, but reported no damage.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian authorities said three people were killed and one was injured when a Russian drone hit a residential building in the Kyiv region.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s centre for countering disinformation, said on Telegram that an oil refinery in Ryazan had been hit, as well as the Kremniy factory in Bryansk that Kyiv says produces missile components and other weapons.
Bloggers on Telegram posted images and videos of fires raging at the Ryazan facility, which covers around 6sq km (2.3sq miles). Verified footage shows people fleeing from the site in cars and on foot as a fireball rises into the sky.
BBC Verify used video footage to establish the location of two fires at the refinery. One video shows a fire near the northern entrance, whose location was matched by the road layout, signs and fences.
Two other videos show a larger fire on the eastern side of the refinery, around 3km (1.6m) away from the first. The location was identified by matching trees, pylons, road and path layouts.
Russian state-owned news agency RIA cited a statement from the Kremniy factory in Bryansk, which said work had been suspended after an attack by six drones. Pavel Malkov, the regional governor, said emergency services were responding.
The Kremlin acknowledged the attacks but made no mention of damage or casualties.
It claimed to have destroyed 121 Ukrainian drones, including six over the Moscow region, 20 in the Ryazan region, and a number over the border region of Bryansk.
Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow’s mayor, said the city’s air defences had intercepted attacks by Ukrainian drones at four locations.
He said air defences southeast of the capital in Kolomna and Ramenskoye had also repelled drones, without specifying how many. He said there was no damage.
Russian news agencies quoted Rosaviatsiya, the federal aviation agency, as saying two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, had resumed flights after suspending operations for a time. Six flights were redirected to other airports.
In the city of Kursk, Mayor Igor Kutsak said overnight attacks had damaged power lines and cut off electricity to one district.
In Ukraine, officials said that its air defences had destroyed 25 of 58 drones launched overnight by Russia.
The interior ministry said debris from one of the drones had killed two men and a woman in Hlevakha, Kyiv region, and that another person had been injured.
Politics
John Healey confirms law change to force offenders to face sentencing after ‘cowardly’ decision
Defence Secretary John Healey has confirmed the Labour Government will move to introduce legislation this year forcing criminals to attend their sentencing hearings.
Healey, who appeared on GB News this morning, made the announcement following the absence of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana during his sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.
Speaking to the People’s Channel, Healey said it was “cowardly” and “contemptible” of Rudakubana to not attend.
Healey added: “He should have been in court to look them in the eye and face the justice that he has deserved.”
John Healey confirmed that the law ‘will change’ to ensure offenders are in court to hear their sentencing handed to them
PA / GB News
The new legislation is expected to allow courts to require attendance in extreme cases and may include measures such as extending sentences for non-compliance.
Detailing the legislation, Healey told GB News that offenders will be “forced if necessary” to attend their sentencings, and “other measures” will be considered including “extending their sentences”.
However, when pressed on whether the law will be changed to reduce the age in which offenders under the age of 18 can be handed a whole life order, Healey asserted that the current legislation is “in line with international law”.
Healey explained: “On the technicality of the whole life sentences, I think it’s important to know that the last government did reduce it to 18, in line with international law, after the Manchester Arena bombings, and that still stands.
“It is consistent with the international law that still stands, but there are a range of other aspects of law, of agencies who have failed in this case to step in. They knew about this man’s extreme violence, but they failed to take any steps that might have prevented it.”
Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced to a minimum term of 52 years in prison on ThursdayPA
Delivering his verdict on the Southport attack, Healey admitted that he “struggled to get his breath” as he read the impact statements of the surviving victims and their families.
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The Defence Secretary told the People’s Channel: “This is a day of horror, and for all of us reading the reports from the court yesterday and the sentencing, quite honestly, I struggled to get my breath as I read about the savagery and the horror and attack.
“It was quite clear Rudakubana would have killed all 26 of those young girls in that dance class if he could.”
Offering his “respect” to the judge Justice Goose for the sentence given, Healey added: “He’s made clear that this man is unlikely ever to be let out, and that’s something that I would like to see – I’m happy to see him in jail for the rest of his life.”
Citing the national inquiry into the Southport attack and the apparent failings of several agencies in preventing Rudakubana from committing his crime, Healey hoped that “changes will be made” to those agencies in light of the inquiry’s findings.
Healey told GB News that they will ‘use force if necessary’ to ensure offenders are in court for sentencing
GB News
Healey concluded: “There may be changes in the programs that are designed to deal with this sort of extremism, and that’s what the inquiry now will do.
“Keir Starmer has said that inquiry is open and any changes that it looks to make will be considered, because it’s a way not just of honouring the memory of the victims to ensure they get justice, but in their memory, we make and deliver the changes required.”
Rudakubana was repeatedly removed from court during his sentencing hearing for disruptive behaviour.
The 18-year-old then refused to be present for the victim impact statements and the sentencing itself, in which he was given a minimum of 52 years in prison.
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Prince Harry has been told that he and fellow claimants taking legal action against the Daily Mail publishers must spend £14m less on costs.
The Duke of Sussex is among a group of people – including Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, actor Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley, and politician Sir Simon Hughes – who are bringing legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over alleged misuse of private information.
ANL firmly denies the allegations and is defending the legal action.
The two sides had proposed to spend more than £38.8m in the legal claim combined, with the claimants proposing to spend around £18.7m.
But Judge Cook said he and Mr Justice Nicklin “had little difficulty concluding that such sums were manifestly excessive and therefore disproportionate”.
On Friday, the two High Court judges ruled that the claimants could instead spend around £4.1m, and ANL around £4.5m, in the case.
Judge Cook said: “Costs management is not an exercise of reducing the parties’ costs to an irreducible minimum but setting reasonable and proportionate parameters.”
The Duke of Sussex has accused the publisher of allegedly commissioning unlawful activities, including hiring private investigators to place listening devices inside cars, recording private phone conversations “blagging” private records, and even burglaries to order.
ANL, which firmly denies the allegations, previously told the court that the accusations are “lurid” and “simply preposterous.
During the hearing last November, Mr Justice Nicklin said his “objective” was to progress the claim to trial, which he said could start on January 14 2026. He stated that the “anticipated length of the trial will be 45 days”.
In a 10-page ruling, Judge Cook said the legal claims were “really rather simple” and wrote: “The claimants will either succeed or fail in demonstrating the proposition. If the relevant claimant fails, that will be the end of the claim in respect of that article.
“If the claimant succeeds, the question of remedy will arise and on this issue the law is clear.”
Judge Cook continued: “This is not to downplay the complexity of the factual issues that may arise in the litigation, but it puts these claims in the context of the sorts of litigation that come before the courts.
“The fact that these claimants are well-known, and the litigation high-profile, does not affect the issues that must be resolved.”
The ruling comes days after Prince Harry settled his legal action against the publishers of The Sun newspaper, receiving a rumoured eight-figure settlement and a “full and unequivocal apology” for intrusion into his private life.
The duke and Lord Tom Watson, the former deputy Labour leader, had taken legal action against the publisher over allegations of unlawful information gathering.
It has been described as a “monumental victory” for Prince Harry against the British press and came after he secured a separate victory against the publishers behind The Mirror in 2023.
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South Wales PoliceThe heir to a pie company fortune has been sentenced to life in prison for the “barbaric and cruel” murder of his best friend on Christmas Eve in the house they shared.
Dylan Thomas stabbed William Bush, 23, on 24 December 2023, a total of 37 times with a large kitchen knife and a flick knife.
Thomas, 24, who admitted manslaughter but denied murder, had looked up details of the anatomy of the neck in the hours before the attack in Llandaff, Cardiff.
Thomas is the grandson of Sir Stanley Thomas, who made his fortune with his brother in the south Wales-based family firm Peter’s Pies, and who was present in court for the sentencing.
Thomas will serve a minimum term of 19 years before he eligible to be considered for release.
It took jurors three hours to find him guilty of murder in November.
On Friday, Thomas appeared before the court by video link from Ashworth Hospital in Liverpool, where he is being treated for schizophrenia and psychosis.
He sat emotionless, speaking only to confirm he could hear the judge.
Judge Karen Steyn described the murder as a “sustained and ferocious knife attack” on “a young man who had been a firm and loyal friend”.
“He was a compassionate, loving, witty and vibrant young man,” she said.
“He had a bright future ahead of him.”
She said Mr Bush was “senselessly murdered” depriving him of “many, many decades of a happy and fulfilling life”.
She added the sentence was “not intended as a measure of the value of Will’s life”, adding that was “beyond measure”.
Speaking in court, Mr Bush’s sister Catrin said her brother’s life was taken “in the most barbaric and cruel way”.
“Will was such a loyal, funny and caring person, he lit up every room he walked into with his cheeky grin,” she said.
“My family have been left with a massive hole which will never be filled.”
John Bush, William’s father, added their lives had been changed in “a profound and fundamental way”.
“Christmas will not be a time of celebration for our family for many years,” he said.
Elle Jeffreys, William’s girlfriend, told the court she had “lost a future we had both planned and prepared for”.
She said he was a big supporter of Arsenal football club and was fit and active, playing golf for his home county of Powys and running the Cardiff Half Marathon with her in 2023.
“Will was the love of my life and meant everything to me,” she said.
“He would light up any room he walked in to.
“Life will never be the same without Will.”
Family photoDuring the trial, the prosecution told Cardiff Crown Court that Thomas was in a “downward spiral” but in control of his actions at the time of the killing.
He had been arrested weeks earlier for trying to scale the fence at Buckingham Palace and had been released on police bail.
On the morning of the attack, Thomas was driven to Llandaff by his grandmother, Sharon Burton, insisting he wanted to walk his dog, Bruce.
Mrs Burton described him as becoming “more and more agitated” during the journey.
When she parked outside the property, Thomas went in, got the knives, went to Mr Bush’s bedroom and stabbed him repeatedly.
The prosecution said passers-by “heard screams of horror” from the house.
Thomas banged on his grandmother’s car window and she found Mr Bush on the patio outside.
Thomas called 999 for an ambulance after the attack, claiming his friend had “gone mental” and stabbed him.
But the prosecution told the trial it was “a planned attack” by Thomas on Mr Bush and he “deliberately armed himself with knives and attacked him from behind”.
The court was given expert opinion that Thomas had been psychotic for months before the killing.
Jurors heard that he told police officers he was Jesus after his arrest for the killing and offered one police officer a “job with God”.
Judge Steyn said: “It must have been particularly terrifying and horrifying for Mr Bush to be attacked in his home, indeed, in his own bedroom by one of his closest friends. He could be heard to scream and cry, and he plainly struggled to fend off your brutal assault.”
Orlando Pownall, defending Thomas, offered no personal mitigation on behalf of his client but said there was not a “significant degree of planning or premeditation”.
He said Thomas regretted not seeking psychiatric help, adding “opportunities were missed” by people around him before the attack.
Following the sentencing, Chris Evans of the Crown Prosecution Service said the “frenzied attack” was a “shocking” level of violence.
He added Thomas’s actions on the lead up to the murder “demonstrated he was thinking clearly and gave an indication of his intention”.
Det Con Joanne Harris of South Wales Police added Mr Bush was “killed by someone he regarded as his friend having done nothing to warrant the brutal violence inflicted upon him”.
The Thomas family company was launched as Thomas Pies in the 1950s, selling sausage rolls, pies and pasties around the south Wales valleys.
In the 1970s it became Peter’s Pies, and is now known as Peter’s Food, based in Bedwas in Caerphilly county.
The late Stan Thomas passed on the company to his sons Stan junior – Dylan Thomas’s grandfather – and Peter, the former chairman of Cardiff RFC rugby club, who died in 2023. They sold the company in 1988.
Reform UK’s Greater Lincolnshire mayoral candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns has called for the return of capital punishment following the sentencing of Southport child killer Axel Rudakubana.
Speaking to GB News, Jenkyns suggested a public vote on reinstating the death penalty, arguing that British taxpayers should not “give a penny to evil people”.
Rudakubana, 18, received a minimum term of 52-years for murdering three young girls at a dance class and attempting to kill 10 other people in July last year.
The teenager pleaded guilty to murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.
Dame Andrea Jenkyns has backed calls for capital punishment following the sentencing of Axel Rudakubana
PA / GB News
However, due to being 17-years-old at the time of the offence, Rudakubana avoided being handed a whole life order.
Delivering her verdict on capital punishment, Jenkyns told the People’s Channel: “I do think the death penalty should be brought back, definitely. For severe cases of murders of children, multiple murders where they’ve admitted guilt, I think it’s the only way.
“Why should the British taxpayer give a penny to these evil and people? To me, I don’t want them on this earth, that’s my view.”
The Reform UK candidate claimed that Britain has been a “soft touch” for too long, and called for a change to the justice system.
Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced to a minimum term of 52 years in prison on ThursdayPA
Jenkyns stated: “We do need to get tougher in Britain, we’ve been soft touch Britain for too long, and that’s got to change.
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“I don’t care about the human rights of murderers, I care about the human rights of those children who have been murdered, and the rights of their parents that will never, ever see them again.”
Offering a counter-argument as to why the UK should not see a return of capital punishment, former Conservative MP Steve Baker claimed that although Rudakubana “does not deserve to live”, some criminals may result in being “unjustly killed by the state”, if they are wrongly convicted.
Baker explained: “Some cases are so serious they absolutely test our capacity for mercy, and this is one such case. And I’m very clear in my own mind that this man does not deserve to live. For what he’s done, it would be an open and shut case if we had the death penalty in the UK.
“But the reason that we don’t is because of our values, because it is a final sentence, because people are unjustly convicted and there’s no recourse if they have been killed by the state.”
Jenkyns told GB News that there should be a ‘public vote’ on whether it should be reinstated
GB News
Noting Rudakubana’s prison sentence, Baker told GB News that the Southport killer will most likely “beg for death” as the decades “roll by slowly” in prison.
Baker added: “I think we should just reflect on what it will mean for him to spend his life in jail, a minimum of 52 years before he can apply for parole. Obviously, I would prefer a whole life term along with his life sentence.
“But those decades are going to roll by slowly for that man, and I bet at times he will wish for death, and it will not come. And it’s going to be a very cruel life for him, and rightly so.”
In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Goose noted there was no evidence of any ideological motivation behind the attack.
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