Prisoners must be allowed to vote, Europe tells Britain

Prisoners must be allowed to vote, Europe tells Britain

Prisoners must be allowed to vote in the forthcoming general election or it will breach their human rights, the Council of Europe told the Government yesterday.

In an unprecedented warning, the Committee of Ministers has said that unless the Government acts to lift the blanket ban on prisoners voting, the election could breach the European Convention on Human Rights.

It has “strongly urged the UK authorities rapidly to adopt measures, of even an interim nature” to allow prisoners to vote.

The warning is the second delivered by the Committee of Ministers over Britain’s failure to implement a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in 2004 that prisoners should have the right to vote.