Video of Ian Hislop tearing into Priti Patel over death penalty goes viral

A video of Ian Hislop criticising Priti Patel's support for the death penalty has gone viral after comments by newly appointed deputy Tory chairman Lee Anderson came to light.

The old clip was from an episode of a 2011 episode of BBC's Question Time during which Hislop pointed out the flaws in the death penalty.

He said Private Eye, the satirical news magazine that he has edited since 1986, has exposed numerous miscarriages of justice when people were incorrectly convicted of murder.

Hislop argued that if the death was still around these people would have been executed before their convictions could have been quashed.

When Patel attempted to defend her position, Hislop asked: "Are you saying they were guilty these people? So they would be dead."

Patel denied she was saying they were guilty and said crime prevention was about having "strong deterrents".

Hislop responded: "It's not a deterrent killing the wrong people."

Chris Shaw, who posted the video, said: "Instead of throwing more red meat to the foaming-mouthed Tory faithful, death penalty advocate 30p Lee Anderson should watch this."

The video has been viewed more than 150,000 times on Twitter.

It emerged on Thursday that Anderson recently said he would support the UK reintroducing the death penalty.

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In an interview with The Spectator, which took place before his appointment to the role but was published after it, he said: "Nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed.

"You know that, don’t you? 100% success rate."

Anderson has become a controversial figure in recent months for making several frank statements about his views.

The MP has been critical of people who use food banks, saying they lack budgeting skills.

He also criticised the England men's football team for taking the knee in protest at racism.

During a combative interview with the BBC on Thursday, he was asked if he believes that some working people are having to use food banks, to which Anderson replied "no".

"I will challenge you right now to find a firefighter or a nurse in Ashfield (his constituency) that’s using a food bank," the MP said.

He denied that he would be toning down his opinions as a result of his new position, but said many of his "debates will be behind closed doors" now.