UK to fight voting right for inmates

THE UK will fight a European court ruling that prisoners should be given the right to vote, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.

THE UK will fight a European court ruling that prisoners should be given the right to vote, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.

Mr Cameron said it was up to parliament to decide whether prisoners could vote, not European judges.

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons yesterday, he said: “I have always believed that when you are sent to prison, you lose certain rights and one of those rights is the right to vote.

“Crucially, I believe, this should be a matter for parliament to decide and not a foreign court. Parliament has made its decision and I completely agree with it.”

Mr Cameron’s comments came after the European Court of Human Rights gave the UK government six months to change the law in Britain on prisoners’ voting rights.

The court acknowledged that it was up to national authorities to decide exactly who can vote from jail – but said denying the right to all inmates indiscriminately was illegal.