Davidson wants pardon for suffragettes arrested in voting freedom fight

Ruth Davidson has led calls for suffragettes who faced arrest for fighting to win equal voting rights to be pardoned.

The Scottish Conservative leader was followed by Jeremy Corbyn in calling for those women arrested for protesting and committing acts of civil disobedience to have their convictions overturned.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said individual cases would be looked at but said the issue was “complicated”.

Marking the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act, which gave voting rights to some women in the UK, Ms Davidson wrote in a daily newspaper: “Voting was a value judgment, not an intrinsic right.

“That inequality is one of the reasons why I support calls by family members to offer a posthumous pardon to those suffragettes charged with righting that wrong.”

There were more than 1,300 suffragette arrests, and many were imprisoned, where they were often force fed after going on hunger strike.

Emmeline Pankhurst was sentenced to repeated stretches in prison for her militant activity as a founder of the Woman’s Social and Political Union.

At a meeting of the shadow cabinet held at the Museum of London to mark the anniversary, Mr Corbyn said: “Convictions of suffragettes were politically motivated and bore no relation to the acts committed.

“Some were severely mistreated and force-fed in prison post-conviction, so a pardon could mean something to their families.”

He added: “Labour in government will both pardon the suffragettes and give an official apology.”

But in a radio interview, Ms Rudd warned that issuing pardons would be “complicated” when looking at cases of arson and violence.

However, she said Turing’s Law, which pardoned gay and bisexual men convicted of now-abolished sexual offences, set a precedent.

“Some were severely mistreated and force-fed in prison, so a pardon could mean something to their families”

JEREMY CORBYN