<P> The police and the government were of the opinion that the death penalty deterred offenders from carrying firearms and it was for this reason that such offences remained punishable by death . </P> <P> In 1965 the Labour MP Sydney Silverman, who had committed himself to the cause of abolition for more than 20 years, introduced a Private Member's Bill to suspend the death penalty for murder . It was passed on a free vote in the House of Commons by 200 votes to 98 . The bill was subsequently passed by the House of Lords by 204 votes to 104 . </P> <P> The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 suspended the death penalty in Great Britain (but not in Northern Ireland) for murder for a period of five years, and substituted a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment; it further provided that if, before the expiry of the five - year suspension, each House of Parliament passed a resolution to make the effect of the Act permanent, then it would become permanent . In 1969 the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, proposed a motion to make the Act permanent, which was carried in the Commons on 16 December 1969, and a similar motion was carried in the Lords on 18 December . The death penalty for murder was abolished in Northern Ireland on 25 July 1973 under the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973 . </P> <P> Following the abolition of the death penalty for murder, the House of Commons held a vote during each subsequent parliament until 1997 to restore the death penalty . This motion was always defeated, but the death penalty still remained for other crimes: </P>

When did the death penalty stop in uk