The launch of an e-petition calling for the return of capital punishment in Britain has reignited the debate on whether the nation’s worst offenders deserve the ultimate sentence.

The petition has been set up on the Government’s e-petition website by Paul Staines, leader of the Restore Justice campaign and political blogger under the name of Guido Fawkes.

He is asking specifically for the death penalty to be reinstated for the murderers of children and police officers, and points to opinion polls that suggest around half of the British population would support such a move.

Christians on Twitter have been quick to rally support for a counter e-petition calling for the retention of the ban on capital punishment.

The e-petitions need to amass at least 100,000 signatures before a parliamentary debate will be considered.

The death penalty was abolished in Britain in 1965 and in Northern Ireland in 1973. When the death penalty was last debated in Parliament in 1998, it was rejected by 158 votes.

Elizabeth Hunter, Director of Theos think tank, has raised several objections to the reintroduction of capital punishment, saying that the Christian faith should “engender humility” and “an awareness of our own foolishness and fragility”.

“Although in theory capital punishment may sometimes be the most just course of action, the level of knowledge required to make the decision to end a life is surely beyond us,” she said.

“When God commands us to not ‘repay evil for evil’ and to leave revenge up to him, how can we be sure our actions are not equally evil, not motivated by a desire for revenge?

She continued: “Whether you imprison someone for life, or end it, the parents of the murdered child may have sated their (completely understandable) desire for retribution, but they are not repaid. In the case of this most irrevocable of decisions, humility should hold sway.

“Finally, as one who believes in an ultimate source of perfect justice, I’d prefer to leave it in those hands.”

A spokesman for the Church of England commented: "Everyone in the Church of England is pretty much against the death penalty."