Ex-con Tory in revolt over voting rights for prisoners

Ex-con Tory in revolt over voting rights for prisoners

By Mail On Sunday Reporter
Last updated at 11:39 PM on 6th November 2010

David Cameron was under growing pressure last night to scrap his decision to give prisoners the vote after former Cabinet Minister Jonathan Aitken – once sentenced to 18 months’ jail for perjury – joined a Tory revolt over the issue.

Mr Aitken said that prisoners ‘don’t care a toss about this’, adding that his former ‘mates’ at Belmarsh prison in South-East London would be ‘rolling in the aisles with laughter’ at the notion.


Pointless motion: David Cameron's plans to give prisoners the vote has been met with derision by former lag Jonathan Aitken

He said: ‘Most democracies don’t allow prisoners to have votes for the very good reason that if you have broken the law and forfeited your liberty, you forfeit quite a lot of other things too.’

Conservative MPs said Downing Street had ‘misled’ MPs by claiming it had to give prisoners the vote after losing a long-running battle with the European Court of Human Rights – or be sued by convicts denied their democratic rights.

The row intensified as John Hirst – who served 25 years in jail for manslaughter – called for internet access for prisoners in an interview with the Tory Radio website.

He lied and lied and lied

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Jonathan Aitken lied and lied and lied back then, and he is still lying now.

I am all for prison reform and prisoners reforming. Apparently, Jonathan Aitken's qualification for speaking out is that he spent a cushy and protected 7 months in prison. I feel that he should have spent a hard and unprotected 7 years in prison. This man tried to hide behind his wife and daughter rather than face justice. In my book, that makes him a lowlife scumbag. Even allowing for his easy ride in prison, the pathetic Aitken could not cope and on his first night in prison he cried out that he had undergone a religious conversion. He claimed to have found God. I admit I am sceptical about these so-called born again christians. Religion has long been accepted as an escape route in prison. I did not find God in 35 years in prison, and this creep claims to have found him on the first night!

What belies Aitken's claim that he is a reformed character is the stroke he pulled when Iain Duncan Smith gave him a second chance to prove his worthiness as the Chair of the Prison Reform Working Group. He immediately abused his position and this trust by appointing the disgraced Stuart Mitson as a member of this task force. Aitken then recommended that the Tories support the building of the Mitson Academy Model prison. Not only were the Tories conned by this but it is meant to fool the public too. The plan being to divert taxpayers money from the public sector into the private sector. And who stands to financially benefit from this skullduggery? Aitken and Mitson!