Ministers ‘will defy meddling EU over votes for prisoners’

  • Foreign Office has drawn up blueprint to reform European Court of Human Rights
  • Britain has Switzerland’s
    support in its campaign to ‘address growing public and
    political concern’

By
Daniel Martin

Last updated at 12:57 AM on 26th December 2011


Welcome: Conservatives such as Dominic Raab, pictured have praised the Foreign Office's blueprint

Welcome: Conservatives such as Dominic Raab, pictured have praised the Foreign Office’s blueprint

Ministers are preparing to defy Europe over its insistence that Britain gives prisoners the right to vote.

The Foreign Office has drawn up a blueprint to reform the European Court of Human Rights, aiming to win back power for national governments.

Britain has garnered Switzerland’s support in its campaign for changes to ‘address growing public and political concern’ – and is looking for further allies.

If ministers cannot get enough support, they would consider simply ignoring the ruling on enfranchising all prison inmates.

The Government’s stance could inflame tensions within  the Coalition, as the Euro-friendly Lib Dems are likely to have concerns.

But the move has been welcomed by Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers.

Dominic Raab, a member of the parliamentary joint committee on human rights, said: ‘There is a growing consensus that Strasbourg’s meddling has gone too far and that Parliament should stand up for our democratic prerogatives.’

He added: ‘It is welcome to see the UK using its chairmanship of the Council of Europe to build international consensus on Strasbourg reform.

‘It is vital to ensure both that the ECHR does not collapse under the weight of its backlog, and the judges focus on serious human rights abuses, rather than tinkering with finer points of law in mature democracies like Britain.’

The UK will hold the chairmanship of the 47-member Council of Europe until May, and hopes it will be able to use its position to push through reforms.

It has formed an alliance with Switzerland, where voters recently backed proposals by their government to deport foreign criminals.

A joint memo from the Foreign Office and Switzerland said the European Convention on Human Rights was in danger of falling into disrepute because of the huge backlog of 160,000 cases and the meddling of the court’s Strasbourg-based judges.

The document, published  in the Sunday
Times, warns: ‘Urgent action is needed  to avoid further damage  to the
reputation and effectiveness of the convention system.’

The axe killer who demanded the vote

It says the court must ‘address growing public and political concern’ about the way it functions and the extent to which it interferes with issues ‘that do not need to be dealt with at the European level’.

It says European judges should stop considering ‘hopeless cases’ thrown out by national courts.

‘The circumstances in which the European Court of Human Rights should need to reconsider the case and substitute its own view for that of the national court should be relatively limited.’

It also calls on the judges to adopt a broader ‘hands-off’ approach, saying: ‘There is no reason why this approach should be limited to asylum and immigration matters.’

The blueprint has now been submitted to an inter-governmental committee of the Council of Europe.

In February, MPs voted to continue to deny prisoners the right to vote – in defiance of the ECHR.

Last night a Ministry of Justice source said: ‘We are  holding a summit in the  spring during our chair of the Council of Europe to push forward this agenda.

‘The UK wants the court to focus on fundamental values and leave to the member states issues that have already been properly considered by national parliaments and courts, like prisoner voting.’

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
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The comments below have not been moderated.

I have a far simpler solution. Just get us out of the interfering, meddlesome, money gobbling EU altogether. Simpler, quicker, better; and most importantly, what the UK public wants. How about it Cameron?

“Ministers ‘will defy meddling EU over votes for prisoners'” The European Court of Human Rights is nothing to do with the EU, the EU’s judicial body is the European Court of Justice.
– Stephen, St. Ives, England, 26/12/2011 2:16*****The catch is, that to belong to the EU, the UK has to abide by the decisions made by the ECHR, it’s in one of the treaties.

One Man = One Vote.

Heard it all before.

It’s strange then how Australia give some prisoners the vote yet has a tough criminal justice system which would put the Uk to shame. Here prisoners serve about 70% of their sentence before getting parole unlike 30% in the UK.

all this ‘re-enfranchise prisoners’ by treating them nicer has them laughing all the way to their cosy cells. It’s like our new softly, softly approach to raising children (understand their feelings, barter, but never scold and never discipline them)… and look how that’s turning out for our younger generation. Same thing for imbalanced handouts to certain layabout, child-manufacturing individuals – where Clegg and his ilk reckon the way to solve their social-malfunctioning is to chuck more cash (benefits) at them. And the same for our once great education system, where now, the best way is to ensure everyone gets an A… everyone has to be above average

he European Court of Human Rights is nothing to do with the EU, the EU’s judicial body is the European Court of Justice.
– Stephen, St. Ives, England, 26/12/2011 You are so correct, however most of us do not know the difference?I think, like most, the laws from both, are reasonable, but and it’s a big but, the way they are used and abused by ”Legal”minds in this Country appears to not to be the way they meant to be?

Why the hell should convicts be allowed to vote .. They lose all rights when they comitt a crime .. Pathetic do-gooders GO AWAY , convicts should have ZERO rights ..

“Ministers ‘will defy meddling EU over votes for prisoners'”
The European Court of Human Rights is nothing to do with the EU, the EU’s judicial body is the European Court of Justice.

other countries give cons the vote. Why not here?

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