The Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, has said techniques such as waterboarding could be justified if they saved lives, following comments by President Trump this week that torture “absolutely” works.
The issue has been one of the main focuses surrounding Theresa May’s current trip to visit the new US president. In a television interview on Wednesday, Trump said he believed waterboarding and similar tortures worked, and his country should “fight fire with fire”.
Nuttall, who is standing in next month’s byelection in Stoke, was asked about the issue during a campaign visit to Cumbria, where the Copeland seat will also be up for grabs on 23 February.
Echoing Trump’s comments, Nuttall said: “I think sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.”
He said: “I think that these people are incarcerated because they are bad people and they want to do us harm, and if waterboarding ensures that it saves a number of lives in this country, or America, because someone admits to something that is going to happen in terms of a terrorist attack then through gritted teeth I probably would be OK with that.”
A draft US presidential order made public this week envisages a review of interrogation methods for terror suspects, the possible reopening of “black site” prisons outside the US and the continued use of the Guantánamo Bay camp.
May, who has reiterated the UK’s opposition to waterboarding or any other forms of torture, has faced calls from MPs to make plain her stance when she meets Trump on Friday.
Asked whether the government would maintain its position of not sharing intelligence potentially obtained by torture or extraditing people to countries that use it if the US began to waterboard prisoners, May’s spokesman said the questions were “very hypothetical”.
He said: “We don’t condone torture or inhumane treatment in any way.” Asked about the extradition policy, he added: “Our position on this has not changed.”
On Thursday, the Conservative MP Bob Stewart argued that torture was sometimes justified and could work as an interrogation method. The former Army officer said he had been “kind of a torturer” when he served in Northern Ireland.
Nuttall is seeking to replace the departing Labour MP Tristram Hunt in Stoke-on-Trent Central. He was campaigning in Copeland ahead of the byelection caused by the resignation of another Labour MP, Jamie Reed.
The byelections are a major test for Nuttall’s revamped Ukip, particularly of whether he can take the party out from the shadow of its long-time leader and figurehead, Nigel Farage.
Nuttall was announced as the new leader in November, taking over from Diana James, who had resigned after just 18 days in the role. Nuttall said he wanted Ukip to “replace the Labour party” electorally.