By Brendan Carlin
Last updated at 11:13 PM on 5th February 2011
Knife crime campaigner Brooke Kinsella also target of obscene rant
The convicted killer leading the campaign to give prisoners the vote has launched a foul-mouthed, racist attack on an ethnic minority MP opposing his cause.
John Hirst, who served 25 years in jail for killing his 69-year-old landlady with an axe, unleashed a stream of vitriol against Tory MP Priti Patel, branding her a ‘Paki’, a ‘foreign import’ and even insulting her looks.
‘The “Paki” Priti Patel is far from pretty – in fact she is ugly as hell!’ he wrote in his blog, Jailhouselawyer.
Inaccurate slurs: Convicted killer John Hirst wrote a foul-mouthed rant on his blogMr Hirst, 60, added: ‘Unlike the foreign import Patel, I am a Brit born and bred.’
In fact, Tory rising star Ms Patel – the party’s first Asian woman MP – is the child of Ugandan Indian immigrants and was born in London.
Furthermore, the 38-year-old is one of the most high-profile of the so-called Cameron Cuties, known for combining intelligence with glamour.
Mr Hirst also hurled abuse at former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, David Cameron’s knife-crime adviser. Ms Kinsella’s brother Ben was stabbed to death in a North London street in 2008.
Last week, in a report for the Government, Ms Kinsella said prisons and young offenders’ institutions should be ‘places of punishment’ but raised fears that some young inmates saw them as ‘holiday camps’.
In an article headlined ‘Brooke Kinsella is a stupid c***!’, Mr Hirst taunted Ms Kinsella over her brother’s death.
He wrote: ‘What makes her an expert on punishment? She wouldn’t be biased would she by any chance? Hurting at her brother’s death and wanting to lash out at every Tom, Dick and Harry criminal who ends up inside?
‘It was crazy giving her the job of writing a report. She is unbalanced. What she says should be ignored as the insane ramblings of a mad woman.’
Mr Hirst’s obscene outbursts come ahead of this week’s crunch session in the Commons on the prisoners’ right-to-vote issue.
In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favour of Mr Hirst’s case that the denial of his right to vote while he was in prison was a breach of his human rights.
Last year, under pressure from the court, the Government announced it would comply with the ruling and enfranchise prisoners serving sentences of four years or less.
Under attack: Tory MP Priti Patel (left) and actress Brooke Kinsella were criticised by Mr Hirst for their position on prisoner voting rights
But Tory and Labour backbenchers have joined forces in an attempt to defy the ECHR and refuse to enfranchise all convicts, despite warnings that it could lead to tens of millions of pounds being paid to inmates in compensation.
The Prime Minister, who has said the idea of letting prisoners vote makes him ‘physically ill’, has given Tory MPs a free vote on the issue – effectively encouraging them to tear up the ruling by the ECHR.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrat party has traditionally backed the jail votes plan, while Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has warned MPs about the cost of defying the ECHR.
On his blog, Mr Hirst said: ‘If Ms Patel wasn’t so stupid she would understand that passing another Bill trying to establish the UK’s supremacy [on] how it treats prisoners is a non-starter.’
It was ‘a bit rich’ for her to accuse the European Court of ‘bullying’ Britain, he claimed, ‘when it is the UK which has been found guilty of bullying convicted prisoners by denying them their human right to the vote’.
He added that if Ms Patel was ‘an honest woman instead of being corrupt’ then she would not be calling for the Government and Parliament to stand up to Europe, she would be ‘condemning them for their abuse of the most vulnerable group in society – prisoners’.
Mr Hirst also accused Ms Patel and fellow Conservative Claire Perry, a former banker who believes British judges should decide which prisoners should have the right to vote, of ‘expenses-fiddling’.
In fact, the two women only entered the Commons last May and neither has been accused of any expenses irregularities.
‘Neither of them have the foggiest clue what they are gobbing off about whereas I am, on the other hand, a recognised expert in this area,’ wrote Mr Hirst.
‘Claire Perry should try stand-up comedy instead of trying to lay down the law to people more qualified in this respect. She is a banker, which, as we all know, is a euphemism for a w*****.’
Mr Hirst was jailed in 1979 for killing landlady Bronia Burton by hitting her up to seven times on the head with an axe after she asked him to go outside and get some coal for the fire.
Mr Hirst denied murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. He served 25 years before being released in 2004.
Ms Patel, MP for Witham, Essex, said last night: ‘These comments are beneath contempt. My argument on votes for prisoners is based on principle, not inaccurate slurs and racist abuse.
‘I believe that people are in prison for a reason. You lose the right to vote once you commit a crime.’
Ms Perry, MP for Devizes, dismissed Mr Hirst’s remarks as ‘lowlife rantings’.
Ms Kinsella said: ‘I will not let one person detract from the good that has been done by myself and many others in compiling my report.’
It is not the first time Mr Hirst has caused outrage. When the Government confirmed last November it would have to change the law to end the blanket ban on inmates being entitled to vote, he celebrated by drinking champagne and smoking a cannabis joint, saying: ‘I’m now going to celebrate for the 75,000 prisoners who will be getting the vote. That includes murderers, rapists and paedophiles.’
Victory celebration: John Hirst reportedly smoked a cannabis joint and drank champagne when the government announced that prisoners would be allowed to vote
In the face of massive protests from MPs, the Coalition retreated from its position of giving the vote to prisoners serving four years or less by signalling it would restrict the right to people jailed for a year or less even though they are advised that that would be considered unacceptable by the ECHR.
There are even reports that Ministers will now seek to reduce the threshold to six months despite fears the legal compensation for prisoners denied the vote could be up to £100million.
Last night, Mr Hirst refused to apologise for his slurs, saying his blog was designed to ‘provoke’ a response.
Err John you do know that Mr PAtel was not only born in London but she has worked all her life in which to pay taxes. Tell us all just how much you have put into the kitty. yeah right nothing...
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