Paul Nuttall: I would have personally executed Moors murderer Ian Brady

Paul Nuttall supports bringing back the death penalty and said in a BBC television interview on Monday that he “would have pulled the lever on people like Ian Brady".

The UK Independence Party leader also said that he would support the waterboarding of terrorist suspects if it foiled a terrorist attack.

Mr Nuttall, who was grilled in an half hour long interview by BBC presenter Andrew Neil on BBC One on Monday evening, said he backed the death penalty for terrorists and child killers.

In the interview Mr Nuttall singled out the killers of drummer Lee Rigby and Moors murderer Ian Brady, who died of natural causes this month, as people who deserved the death penalty.

Pushed on whether he would be “an MP or an executioner”, Mr Nuttall said: “Well, I don’t want to be Albert Pierrepoint, that’s not what I’m going to go on to when I’m out of politics.

“What I will say is that, you know, they asked me that question, if I’m prepared to stand up say that I believe in the death penalty, then you know, maybe I would pull the lever on people like Ian Brady in the past.”

Mr Nuttall also signalled a crackdown on the way the authorities deal with extremists, including a return to internment for terror suspects, in the wake of last week's Manchester suicide bombing..

Mr Nuttall said:  “I think we've got to look at ways of ensuring that our people are safe, whether that is a return to control orders, whether that is tagging these people, who knows in the future maybe a return to internment.

“We're in a situation now where we're being told that there are 23,000 possible suspects on our streets who want to do us harm.

“Now, if you consider that it costs roundly a million pounds year to have 24/7 surveillance on these people, we're talking a vast amount of money.

“Maybe, Andrew, we're just living in a different society now. I'm not saying now is the time to return to this, but I wouldn't rule it out.”

Mr Nuttall also said he backed waterboarding – which is not Ukip party policy - for terrorist suspects if there were “going to be an immediate attack and people’s lives were on the line”.

He said: “If we were in a situation where there was an immediate terrorist attack on the horizon and we had to get information which would save people’s lives in this country, then I would basically, I would use hard measures.”

Asked if these hard measures meant “including waterboarding”, he replied “including waterboarding”.

Referring to the Manchester suicide attack, he added that unless “unless we get a grip on this what happened in Manchester the other night, which is part of my constituency, could become commonplace”.

Mr Nuttall defended the party’s policy of banning face coverings if Ukip wins the general election by saying that one terrorist used a burka to disguise himself after the failed 21 July 2005 bombings.

He said: “We are the most watched people in the world. Okay, there’s more CCTV in this country than anywhere else on the planet, and for it to be effective you need to see people’s faces.”

Asked if Islam is “a religion of peace”, Mr Nuttall said: “The vast majority of Muslims, absolutely. I mean, they are peaceful. They live in this country, they love this country, they add to the economy.

“The problem is there’s a small number of people who need to be sorted out, cut out of society altogether, and actually what we need to do is we need to ensure that we put more police officers on the beat, and we’re proposing 20,000 extra police officers, to ensure that these people are caught and brought to justice.”

Mr Nuttall was challenged about his failure to boost Ukip’s standing in the polls because it was a “pale imitation” of the party under his predecessor Nigel Farage.

Neil told Mr Nuttall “you’re no Nigel Farage”. Mr Nuttall replied: “I’m not Nigel Farage, quite obviously."

He added: "We come from completely different backgrounds, we have a completely different leadership style and I’ve only been the Leader of UKIP for six months.

“I’m now in a General Election and I believe I’ll lead UKIP after this General election and we go on to great things.”

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