London: Priti Patel, home secretary (Cabinet minister) under British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has said that she wanted to make potential criminals “literally feel terror.”
She denied having ever supported the death penalty, despite previously calling for it to be reintroduced. The ardent Brexiteer was appointed to the Home Office by Boris Johnson last month prompting controversy over her past support for capital punishment. However, Ms Patel has now insisted that her previous claims, including that she would “support the reintroduction of capital punishment,” did not mean she was an “active supporter” of the death penalty.
She said her comments on the issue were “constantly taken out of context” and claimed that footage of her endorsing the death penalty “may have been clipped”.
“I have never said I’m an active supporter of it and (what I said) is constantly taken out of context,” she said.
She claimed she had previously been “asked about deterrents in crime and I think we need more deterrents obviously” and suggested that footage of her endorsing capital punishment “may have been clipped” to change how it was “presented”.
She said: “I’ve always felt the Conservative Party is the party of the police and police officers.
“Quite frankly, with more cops out there, I want (criminals) to literally feel terror at the thought of committing offences,” she said in an interview.
