Right to vote for prisoners

In May of this year, the European Court of Human Rights gave Britain six months to outline proposals on giving prisoners the right to vote in elections. This has been an ongoing issue since 2005 when the Court ruled that a total ban on voting for prisoners was illegal. We are now coming up to that deadline and so this week David Cameron gave his response- that under his Government prisoners would not be getting the vote, a position I wholeheartedly agree with.

In 2010 I raised this issue in a question to the Prime Minister in the House of Commons. His response was that prisoners who flout the law ‘should lose their rights, including the right to vote’.

In my opinion if someone chooses to step outside of the law to the point where they receive a term of imprisonment then a loss of rights should go with that – including the right to vote.

It is laughable for a convicted prisoner to be able to help choose on what kind of Criminal Justice System we have. Next month we will be voting on who should be the Police Commissioner for Kent. It would be absurd if prisoners were to be able to help choose who that person should be.

There is also a fundamental principle of sovereignty to be considered over this issue. It should, I believe, be for Britain to decide if prisoners have the vote or not and not for the European Court of Human Rights.