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Is support for capital punishment growing?

Mar 10, 2025 | Stories

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Arguments against the death penalty had been advanced in the 1950s, with a particular boost for abolition resulting from the case of Ruth Ellis, a young mother who had murdered her unfaithful lover in 1955.

The Tories reduced the number of offences carrying the death penalty in 1957, and then, following a tireless campaign by the Labour backbencher Sydney Silverman, hanging was abolished in 1965 on a free vote for a total period of five years. Finally in 1969, with Parliament going against the balance of a sharply divided public opinion, this was made permanent.

The last judicial hanging in the UK actually took place in 1964, and it is clear from surveys conducted over the 60 years since then (and recorded in the Archive) that although there have been ups and downs – and things may have changed very recently – there has mostly been a decline in the proportion of adults who support capital punishment for all murders, but there is still majority support for capital punishment in the case of certain types of murder:

  • In December 1964, at the start of its five-year trial period of abolition, NOP found that 67% wanted hanging kept permanently, while only 26% wanted it abolished fully.
  • By 1966, NOP found even more, 82%, wanted it brought back while15% disagreed.
  • In a Harris Poll of 1969, after 4 years of the trial, a similar 13% thought it should be abolished completely, 29% thought it should be brought back for all types of murder, while a 55% majority thought it should be brought back for only some types of murder, most notably for the killing of a policeman, a sexual attack leading to a death, and a prisoner killing a prison warder. But most did not want it for a husband killing his wife’s lover and for a killing in defence of a robbery.
  • 10 years later, in 1978, an NOP Poll asked (all adults): Should capital punishment be re-introduced for all murderers? 70% agreed, 26% disagreed and 5% said neither/don’t know.
  • By 1990, NOP found around half of respondents (49%) thought that capital punishment should be brought back for some murders, and a third (32%) said it should be brought back for all murders; only 18% of respondents said it should not be brought back at all.
  • In August 1995, MORI found 76% saying the death penalty is “justified sometimes”, with 21% saying “never”. And as many as 80% wanted a referendum on its reintroduction.

There are quite some differences depending on how exactly the question is phrased, and to what extent different types of murders are considered, but basically public opinion had hardly moved in the 30 years from 1965-1995. All through that period a substantial majority still supported capital punishment for at least some types of murders.

Bringing things more up-to-date, YouGov found in January 2022 that only 40% supported the return of the death penalty and they commented in August 2023 that their polls from 2019 to 2022 “have consistently shown waning support, always below 40% for the introduction of capital punishment for murder. However, their 2022 poll also found that rather more (55%) did so in cases of multiple murders or when part of a terrorist act (54%). And in April 2021 the NatCen Attitudes Report similarly found 54% of Britons would support reinstating the death penalty for those convicted of terrorism.

Most recently the triple murders in Southport by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana provoked rioting and his 52-year prison sentence imposed at the start of 2025 brought further protests that it is too lenient. Since then, several polls have been published at the end of January 2025, including another by YouGov, which shows support for the death penalty in cases of terrorism has risen even higher to 57%.

In summary, 60 years after it was abolished in Britain by Act of Parliament, although public support of capital punishment for all murders has fallen below 40%, there is still a majority of support, varying between 54% and 57%, for capital punishment for specific types of murder.

Sources (in the Archive):

Under NOP Reports:

In Opinion Poll Reports:

In British Public Opinion Sept 1995 issue:

Sources (outside the Archive):

in the YouGov website:

  • their Tracker Poll of January 2025

  • under ‘Politics and Current Affairs’, their poll of March 30, 2022.

From 30 January 2025, a poll of 2,000 adults by ‘More in Common’, quoted in ‘The Justice Gap’ Magazine.

NatCen Opinion Panel report on British Social Attitudes Survey 2021

 

Contributed by Peter Bartram
Date posted: 10th March 2025.

 

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