RISHI SUNAK has distanced himself from newly appointed deputy Tory chairman Lee Anderson over his comments supporting the return of the death penalty. 

In an interview with the Spectator, Mr Anderson said he would support Britain reintroducing capital punishment because “nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed.”

“You know that, don’t you? 100 per cent success rate,” he told the right-wing publication. 

The Tory MP — and former office manager to ex-MP and Labour rightwinger Gloria De Piero — made the comments a few days before his surprise appointment during Tuesday’s Cabinet mini-shuffle.

But Mr Sunak has rejected his call for a return of the death penalty. 

“That’s not my view, that’s not the government’s view,” Mr Sunak told reporters during a visit to Cornwall.

“But we are united in the Conservative Party in wanting to be absolutely relentless in bearing down on crime and making sure people are safe and feel safe.”

Mr Anderson, who will work under Tory chairman Greg Hands following the resignation of Nadhim Zahawi, has never been far from controversy. 

Last year he sparked outrage after telling the Commons that food banks were largely unnecessary, and that families could survive on 30p meals, earning him the name “30p Lee.” 

Mr Anderson has also called for Channel-crossing asylum-seekers to be returned to France using Royal Navy frigates on the same day they arrive in the UK. 

Once a Labour councillor before converting to the Tories, Mr Anderson’s views are said to be popular with grassroots supporters. In 2022 he was voted backbencher of the year in a poll by Conservative Home.

The death penalty for murder in the UK was outlawed permanently in 1969 and then totally abolished for all crimes in 1998.