An MP has renewed calls for a return to capital punishment, following claims that sharp-pointed kitchen knives should be banned in a bid to slash knife crime.

Roger Gale, MP for Herne Bay, reacted sharply to suggestions that the blade of a knife is more important to chefs than the point.

He said: “Are we seriously suggesting that chef’s knives should be banned?

“If so, then a panoply of carpenters and plumbers ‘weapons’, such as hammers and screwdrivers, will have to be taken out of circulation.”

Mr Gale’s comments came as the Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair revealed that kitchen knives had become the most used weapon in teenage stabbings.

The Government has launched a £3m advertising campaign, using graphic photographs to show the impact of knife crime on people’s lives.

Mr Gale believes the Government needs to go even further, with those responsible for fatal knife attacks given the death sentence in certain circumstances.

The MP, who previously sought an amendment to introduce capital punishment to the criminal justice bill, said: “I believe there are some crimes for which capital punishment is appropriate.

“Prior to the abolition of capital punishment, those with criminal intent generally did not go about their business and their everyday lives ‘tooled up’. Now they do.

“I appreciate that a re-introduction would mean the repeal of the Human Rights Act but I have no problem with that whatsoever.”