Euro judges trample UK sovereignty and insist: You WILL give prisoners the vote

Euro judges trample UK sovereignty and insist: You WILL give prisoners the vote

By James Slack
Last updated at 8:25 AM on 13th April 2011

Axe-killer John Hirst, who has gained an expertise in prison law, demanded the vote

European judges last night dismissed the Government’s final appeal against prisoner voting, riding roughshod over British sovereignty.

The European Court of Human Rights said it was not even prepared to consider the appeal, despite MPs voting overwhelmingly to keep Britain’s 140-year ban on inmates taking part in elections.

The court also demanded the right to fix the Parliamentary timetable for introducing the legislation.

If the Government does not bring forward new laws within six months, European judges will begin ordering the payment of an estimated £150million in compensation to killers, rapists and other prisoners.

MPs fear prisoners are certain to be voting by the next general election.
Last night Tory backbenchers reacted with fury to the decision.

Ministers said they were ‘disappointed’. They must now decide whether to risk a full-blown crisis over Europe by refusing to obey the court’s verdict.

The ECHR – whose judges do not even need to have any judicial experience in their homeland – first ruled in favour of John Hirst, a convicted axe-killer demanding the right to vote, in 2004.

A string of appeals and legal cases followed, before MPs voted by an overwhelming majority in February to defy the court and maintain the ban.

Ministers then made a final appeal to the five-judge panel of the Grand Chamber of the European Court, its top tier.

But in a judgment made public yesterday, the Grand Chamber refused to even consider the appeal.

The panel said: ‘The Government is further required to enact the relevant legislation within any time frame decided by the Committee of Ministers, the executive arm of the Council of Europe, which supervises the execution of the Court’s judgments’.

MPs said it was ‘astonishing’ that Europe should seek to decide how and when Britain’s sovereign Parliament should pass laws.

'Shocking arrogance': Conservative MP Dominic Raab says Britain must stand firm against the growing abuse of power

Tory Dominic Raab said: ‘It is shocking arrogance for the Strasbourg Court to dismiss the legitimate concerns of Britain’s elected law-makers without even listening to the arguments.

‘Britain must stand firm against this growing abuse of power by unaccountable judges.’

After a ruling last November which reinforced the court’s 2005 decision, David Cameron told MPs: ‘It makes me physically ill to contemplate giving the vote to prisoners.’

But he said the Government reluctantly accepted there was a legal obligation to offer voting rights at least to some prisoners or face possible compensation claims running into millions of pounds.

Last night a Cabinet Office spokesman said: ‘We are disappointed with the decision not to reconsider the judgment. We will consider the next steps.’

The British courts have said that if the Government refuses to adhere to the ruling, they would not pay compensation to criminals claiming their human rights have been infringed.

But Europe could impose such payments itself.
Labour repeatedly stalled over the implementation of the ruling, knowing it would be deeply unpopular with voters.

The European court has 47 members, 20 of whom have no prior judicial experience.
The court’s ‘one country, one judge’ rule means Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco and Andorra each have a seat despite their combined populations being smaller than that of the London borough of Islington.