Support for restora­tion of the death penal­ty in Great Britain, even when the mur­der vic­tim is a police offi­cer, has fall­en below 50% for the first time since its abo­li­tion four decades ago. According to a YouGov poll con­duct­ed for The Daily Telegraph, the num­ber of peo­ple who oppose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment even when the vic­tim is a police offi­cer has risen to 43%. The fig­ure is a dra­mat­ic changed from the 20% who voiced oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty in a 1960 poll con­duct­ed by Gallup. Only 49% of those polled sup­port the death penal­ty for those who mur­der police offi­cers, down from 70% in 1960. The poll found that the high­est lev­els of oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment were mea­sured among Great Britain’s youth and those who are mem­bers of the nation’s Labour par­ty. England sus­pend­ed the death penal­ty in 1965 and abol­ished it in 1969. (Telegraph News, January 3, 2006). 

See Public Opinion and International.

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