MPs seek pardon for the suffragettes

Many suffragettes were arrested and jailed during the struggle for the vote early in the 20th century, and the MPs believe their contribution towards democracy should be recognised in the form of a pardon.

The fight to achieve female suffrage in the UK eventually bore fruit in January 1918 when a Reform Bill granting women the vote was passed by a majority of 63 in the Commons.

However, the preceding years saw hundreds of thousands of British women battle for full democratic rights using a variety of radical methods, including hunger strikes, civil disobedience and even bombs.

The Home Office is understood to have reacted coolly to the idea of granting a Royal pardon to the suffragettes, suggesting that requests for convictions to be overturned should be directed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission and the Court of Appeal.

The SNP MP Mike Weir, one of the signatories of the parliamentary early-day motion calling for a pardon, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "We want it to honour the suffragettes and their struggle for women’s votes.

"This was a pivotal moment in our democracy and they were particularly viciously treated by the establishment of the time.

"They moved society on and were the template for many subsequent campaigns, like the civil rights movement in America and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

"The Home Office took a very legalistic view of this, saying the matter should go to the Court of Appeal or Criminal Cases Review Commission, but that is completely impractical, given the passage of time.

"What we should be doing is recognising this important struggle for democracy in this country and removing the stigma of criminality from them by giving them this pardon."

But not all MPs were supportive of the proposal.

Meg Munn, who chairs the Parliamentary Labour Party’s women’s committee, told Today: "I agree that this was an extremely important moment in our history. They achieved a tremendous amount at great personal cost.

"But I believe a pardon would in some way diminish their achievement. They actually deliberately broke the law and took great personal risk and we should honour that."

Ms Munn said the suffragettes’ memory would be better honoured by improvements in female representation in parliament and in City boardrooms and by ending gender inequality in pay.

The fight to secure improved women’s rights, and especially women’s voting rights, began in Victorian times - long before the suffragette movement became radicalised in the early 20th century.

One of the very first "suffragettes" - a term coined as an insult by the Daily Mail, but later adopted by the campaigners - was Mary Smith, an unmarried property owner.

In 1832 she quietly petitioned Parliament, urging the inclusion of propertied women as those privileged to vote for Members of Parliament.

Frustrated by a side-stepping government, a majority of the suffragettes eventually turned to militant measures in order to win the vote.

The most radical faction of the movement was the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Sylvia.

The WSPU made a priority of stressing the importance of publicity, with members being encouraged to "conduct the biggest publicity campaign ever known".

When arrested and tried the suffragettes refused to be fined, choosing imprisonment instead.

Once in prison, they went on hunger strikes and were force-fed by guards using a steel tube shoved down the nose and the throat - a gory process that did much to arouse sympathy with the wider public.

In Scotland, Helen Archdale - daughter of the editor of The Scotsman, Alexander Russel - was arrested for attempting to disrupt a meeting at which Winston Churchill, then MP for Dundee, was speaking by dropping a 2lb weight through a glass roof.