The Daily Mail is stepping up its attacks on the UK Independence Party again following an intensive campaign on the run up to the European Elections in May. Today the Mail reports on the opinion of a new UKIP MEP Louise Bours, who has said that Britain should bring back the death penalty to punish child killers.

The Mail restarted its campaign against Nigel Farage’s party last week with its story about Bill Etheridge MEP, who used Adolf Hitler as an example of a good public speaker. The story was even dismissed by the naturally anti-UKIP former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe.

Bours, who was elected to the European Parliament during the ‘earthquake’ win for UKIP in May said on the 50th anniversary of the last execution in Britain: “The death penalty won’t bring back a tortured and murdered child, but it seems natural justice that the family will know the killer has paid the ultimate price and isn’t still breathing when their child is not.

“An innocent child has more of a right to life than the monster that took their life, so I see no ethical reason why we are obliged to keep him alive.

“Why should double cop-killer Dale Cregan be kept alive, after shooting them more than 8 times and using a hand-grenade. His crime wasn’t impulsive or emotional, he lured them in with a fake 999 call and he’d killed two other people prior to that.”

Britain is considered to have gone soft on crime in recent decades, and a significant number of Britons are said to favour the return of capital punishment.

The Mail itself reported in 2011 that 53 per cent of voters polled backed the reintroduction of the death penalty, with only 34 percent against.

Yesterday the Guardian reported that 45 per cent are in favour, with 39 percent against. In May last year, closely following the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby in London, support for the death penalty rose to 63 percent.

The evidence therefore seems to side with Bours and UKIP. She added: “Paul Bone, the father of murdered WPC Fiona Bone agrees that the death penalty should be brought back, and as his life has been devastated by a cold-blooded killer, I think his views should be listened to.

“The killers of Lee Rigby despise the UK and want to kill us all, yet we have to use tax-payers money to keep them alive and well in prison, and look after their ‘human-rights’.

“The country has not had a debate on this issue for 10 years.

“UKIP believe in direct democracy, which means referendums on major issues, where the public demand one. If there were a referendum, I would support a return of the death penalty for certain types of crimes.”