Prisoners step up fight for the right to vote after Britain fails to act on European court decision

Prisoners step up fight for the right to vote after Britain fails to act on European court decision

By James Slack

Thousands of prisoners could win the right to vote by the next General Election.

Convicts have threatened legal action over ministers’ failure to act on a five-year-old European court judgment which ruled that Britain’s ancient voting ban on serving prisoners is unlawful.

The Government is bound by the European Court of Human Rights ruling.

One of those planning a legal challenge in the High Court is John Hirst, who served 25 years for the axe killing of his landlady.

He said: ‘The state is abusing power. I am not prepared to have it stick two fingers up at prisoners and Europe any longer.’

The Prison Reform Trust last night accused ministers of dodging the issue over fears the move could trigger an electoral backlash.

The next General Election must be held on or before June 3 next year.

Ministers have embarked on a series of consultation exercises, but have yet to publish any firm proposals or a time scale for implementation.

Critics say they are desperate to buy time as they realise that giving inmates the right to vote for the first time will be hugely unpopular, and risks an electoral backlash.

If they can delay making the change until after the next election, it could potentially provide a headache for an incoming Tory Government.

But the prospect of a legal defeat forcing change before the next election cannot be discounted, given the major victory which inmates have already won.

Parliament's joint committee on human rights has warned that - if the changes are not made in time - prisoners could claim they have been unlawfully disenfranchised.

The Prison Reform Trust last night accused ministers 'of being preoccupied with political considerations rather than fairness or the rule of law'.

In the past, Mr Straw has remarked: 'Speaking for myself and I think for all my colleagues we are wholly opposed to giving prisoners the right to vote.'

He said called the ruling by European judges 'interesting,' and emphasised that the Commons would have the final say.

The Strasbourg judges said in their ruling that the voting ban should go because Parliament had never properly discussed the issue.

But MPs had full opportunities to debate the question in 1983, when the voting ban was modernised, and in 2000, when new laws ensured that prisoners held on remand awaiting trial could continue to vote.

The ban on voting originates from before the Norman Conquest and was formalised in Edward lll's reign in the 14th century when the concept of 'civic death,' which says a criminal is an outlaw and has no benefits of citizenship, was established.