Fury at plans for prisoners to get the vote

A DECISION to allow serving prisoners the vote following a 12year dispute with the European Court of Human Rights has provoked outrage.

Ministers have spent more than a decade fighting a ruling won by axe killer John Hirst that the current blanket ban on prisoner voting was unlawful.

But yesterday it emerged that Justice Secretary David Lidington had put forward plans to let inmates take part in elections – but only those on day release who are still on the electoral roll.

As voters ‘drop off’ the electoral roll after a year if they do not register, which serving prisoners are unable to do, ministers insist only those serving under 12 months will be eligible – possibly as few as 100 inmates.

The prospect of abandoning the current law is likely to cause alarm – David Cameron once said that the thought of prisoners voting made him feel ‘physically ill’.

It could also raise fears that eventually inmates locked up for more serious crimes will be allowed to vote. A senior Government source told the Sunday Times: ‘This will only apply to a small number of people who remain on the electoral roll and are let out on day-release. These are not murderers and rapists but prisoners who are serving less than a year who remain on the electoral roll.

‘No one will be allowed to register to vote if they are still behind bars.’

However, Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, said: ‘I find this totally unacceptable. People who are in prison for breaking the law shouldn’t be voting for the people who set the law. It doesn’t matter if it just affects a few hundred inmates, they’re still prisoners.

‘If being able to vote was so important to them they shouldn’t have committed the crime that saw them jailed in the first place.’

Peter Bone, the Tory MP for Wellingborough, added: ‘I’m not in favour of letting prisoners vote. I find it extraordinary. It’s a bonkers decision. I think a lot of MPs will be concerned about this.’ But Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday: ‘The European Court of Human Rights has been saying for some years that we can’t stop all prisoners having the vote and the Labour Party believes that… in the end, we have to support the position of the European Court of Human Rights.’

The legal saga started in 2005 when axe killer John Hirst won a ruling at the European Court of Human Rights that the current voting ban was unlawful.

Since then ministers in successive governments have worked on a series of compromises to appease the Council of Europe, which oversees the courts.

‘Totally unacceptable’