ACADEMICS have branded the Tories a “breed apart,” with research by Queen Mary University of London finding more than half of the party’s members support the death penalty.

The study, published today, asked questions of the members of different political parties.

It found 54 per cent of Tory members want executions, compared to 23 per cent for the SNP and 9 per cent for Labour.

In 2013, backbench Tory MPs drew up an “Alternative Queen’s Speech” that included the reinstatement of the death penalty.

Capital punishment was abolished in Britain in 1965, when Labour were in power under Harold Wilson.

The Queen Mary report found that 84 per cent of Conservatives believe schools should teach children to obey authority, compared to 38 per cent of SNP members and Lib Dem members and 31 per cent for Labour.

Meanwhile just one in 10 Conservatives oppose the scale of austerity, in contrast to 98 per cent of Labour members.

Researchers also found that Tory members “did less on almost every count than their counterparts in other parties” to help their party during the election.

A total of 4,117 members of the four parties were surveyed just after the 2017 general election.