Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson says he's not on “some lunatic fringe” for wanting to bring back the death penalty.
The outspoken MP for Ashfield said he is "allowed to have opinions" after backlash to comments claiming capital punishment has a "100% success rate".
Mr Anderson was given the post by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in his reshuffle last week.
In an interview with The Spectator magazine a few days before his appointment, he said he would support the UK reintroducing the death penalty.
The Prime Minister was forced to distance himself from the comments to confirm that neither he, nor the Government, shared his view.
Speaking on Nadine Dorries' TalkTV programme Friday Night With Nadine, Mr Anderson doubled down on some of his controversial claims, insisting bringing back the death penalty is not "some lunatic fringe view".
However, he did acknowledge "it's never going to be Government policy".
He said: "This is not a big surprise to my constituents. I'm not all of a sudden coming out saying I support the death penalty. This is an opinion I've always held from being a teenager, but you know what? It's not some lunatic fringe view. This is not."
He claimed the policy is "actually" supported by 52% of the country and millions of Conservative voters.
"Look, I know and you know, Nadine, this is never going to happen. It's never going to be Government policy, it will never get through Parliament but, you know, I'm a human being, I'm a citizen, I'm a member of Parliament.
"I am allowed to have opinions, even if there's some people in my own party in Parliament don't agree with them. It's as simple as that. It's a democracy," he added.
Asked by Boris Johnson's sister Rachel, a guest on the show, whether he felt like a "rat that's jumped on a sinking ship", after swapping sides in Parliament, Mr Anderson said: "I don't feel like I have jumped on the sinking ship."
Mr Anderson served as a Labour councillor in Ashfield before defecting to the Conservatives in 2019.
The now-Tory MP has been dubbed "30p Lee" for claiming that meals could be prepared for that sum and suggesting people using food banks could not budget.
In 2021, when the men's Euro 2020 football tournament was taking place, he vowed to boycott England matches in protest against the players' anti-racism stance of taking the knee before matches.
Even when Gareth Southgate's team got to the final, Mr Anderson said he would not tune in, although he admitted he might check the score on his phone.
It emerged last weekend that Mr Anderson is facing libel proceedings after he "made defamatory allegations of bribery" against a man who runs a foodbank.
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