Colonel Richard Kemp, former chairman of the British government intelligence coordination body Cobra has written in British newspaper the Daily Telegraph that leaving the European Union will present a golden opportunity to strengthen counter-terrorism laws, and even to bring back the death penalty.

Joining the debate over the government’s stance on Islamic State terror suspects Alexanda Kotey and Shafee El-Sheikh — both former British citizens now in the hands of the United States government — Colonel Kemp stated that “A vital purpose of judicial punishment is deterrence” while pointing to “the weakness of our previous policies”.

Leftists, Senior Tories Fight to Save ISIS Killers from Execution, Despite Public Support for Death Penalty https://t.co/LPR6V318Il — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 23, 2018

Published under the headline “After Brexit, we can give Isil terrorists the justice they deserve – and that means the death penalty”, Colonel Kemp wrote that it was “Far better for them to go to the electric chair in the US if convicted than to let them come back to Britain and murder our citizens.”

He wrote:

I remember sitting around a table with the prime minister and cabinet ministers back in 2005, in the aftermath of the waves of Islamic terrorist attacks in London, discussing exactly these issues. Tony Blair was resolved to take strong action but he was frustrated by over-cautious and over-powerful public servants. It seems they are being overridden now. Brexit enables us to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which never contemplated the type of conflict we face and shackles our legal system in a way that costs innocent lives. At least 400 British Muslims who fought with the Islamic State are estimated to have returned home. Of these, just 54 have been convicted, many receiving short sentences and already released. This reflects our inadequate laws. Until those laws can be changed, these people should be deported or detained and the 300 remaining survivors prevented from returning. We should not in future have to rely on the US to impose justice for us.

Despite widespread condemnation for the government’s move to give the U.S. a free hand in dispensing justice to the two terrorists among the mainstream media and some political circles, the death penalty remains a broadly popular alternative deterrent for very serious crimes among British citizens. As Breitbart London reported this week the political class is out of step with the voting public, and if there were to be a new referendum on whether to bring back the punishment it is suggested by recent polling that it could be brought back.

Read more at the Daily Telegraph