A UK Cabinet minister has risked worsening tensions with Donald Trump after condemning a “disturbing” US plan to broadcast the execution of a terrorist by firing squad.
Bridget Phillipson emphasised that the decision to execute former Army major Nidal Hasan was ultimately a “matter for the US Government”.
However, the Labour Party chair reiterated Britain’s “long-standing” opposition to capital punishment and said she personally considered the planned execution “rather disturbing”.
Her remarks could create another point of friction with the volatile US president, as Andy Burnham seeks to strengthen transatlantic relations.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has confirmed that Hasan’s execution by firing squad will be broadcast live on December 3. He said the public needed to see that there were “serious consequences for these types of things”.
The broadcast would accompany the first public execution in the United States since 1937, when convicted murderer Roscoe Jackson was hanged in Missouri.
Hasan killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009.
During his trial, Nidal Hasan told jurors that he had “switched sides” in what he described as America’s war with Islam
Bridget Phillipson said Britain had a “long-standing” opposition to the death penalty and described the situation as “rather disturbing”
Ms Phillipson avoided saying whether Andy Burnham should raise the issue with Donald Trump, pictured together in New York last month
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has confirmed that Hasan’s firing-squad execution will be broadcast live on December 3
Shocked US military personnel tried to contact friends and relatives outside Fort Hood on November 5, 2009, in Killeen, Texas
The Islamic extremist entered a medical readiness building at the base in November 2009 armed with two guns and several magazines of ammunition. After shouting “Allahu Akbar”, meaning “God is great” in Arabic, he opened fire on soldiers waiting for medical examinations and vaccinations.
The attack killed 13 people and wounded 32, making it the deadliest assault on a US military installation inside the country. Hasan was shot during the ensuing gunfire and paralysed from the waist down before being sentenced to death in 2013.
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Hasan said he carried out the Fort Hood terror attack because he was angry that American troops had been deployed to Afghanistan and wanted to protect Islamic and Taliban leaders.
Earlier this week, Donald Trump ordered that Hasan should be executed by firing squad.
Mr Hegseth said overnight: “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
Asked about the execution plans during an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Phillipson said the decision was “a matter for the US Government”.
“It is not something that the British Government would routinely have a position on,” she said.
“The view of the Government is always that we are opposed to the death penalty.”
Nidal Hasan (pictured), the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded over 30 in a mass shooting at Fort Hood is set to face death by firing squad in December
Since 1608, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by shooting in America, nearly all in Utah. Only four have occurred since 1977, when the use of capital punishment resumed after a ten-year pause
‘My personal view is that I am opposed to the death penalty and I find that rather disturbing, is my honest reaction.
‘I think you can have a system that provides clear consequences without… I am proud our country did away with the death penalty a very very long time ago.’
Pressed whether the PM should raise the issue with the US, she said: ‘As I say it is a matter for the US Government, they are a close ally. Does that mean that we support everything the US Government does, no it doesn’t.
‘But that is not for us to involve ourselves in what are ultimately questions of US domestic policy.
‘But I am a longstanding opponent of the death penalty… Governments of all political persuasions actually have had a longstanding commitment to not wanting to see the death penalty across the world.’