A BIRMINGHAM graduate is leading a high-profile campaign opposing calls to bring back the death penalty.

The House of Commons could be forced to debate bringing back capital punishment, following a campaign led by a leading political website.

But opposition to the demand is being led by former University of Birmingham student Martin Shapland, who is now a researcher working for city MP John Hemming (Lib Dem Yardley).

It follows the creation of a new government website allowing members of the public to submit petitions, which launched yesterday.

Under plans to make Parliament more transparent and accountable, any petition signed by 100,000 people might be debated in the House of Commons.

Blogger Paul Staines, who runs the right-wing website order-order.com under the pseudonym Guido Fawkes, launched a petition demanding the restoration of the death penalty for the killers of children and police officers, and urged his readers to sign it.