Prisoners are to get the right to vote after a long-running legal battle between the Government and the European Court. What does your MP think?
The government looks set to confirm it will change the law after lawyers advised failure to comply with a 2004 ECHR ruling could cost hundreds of millions of pounds in litigation costs and compensation.
David Cameron is widely expected to resist allowing the vote to prisoners convicted of the most serious crimes, including child murderers and serial killers.
Commenting on the breaking news, Winchester & Chandler’s Ford MP Steve Brine said: “I am quite shocked by this decision, I don’t support all prisoners having the right to vote and I never have. But for me this opens up the whole issue of prison reform, something I am very supportive of.
“If we lock people up and throw away the key for their time in custody we shouldn’t be too surprised when they come out and struggle to be contributory members of society. I think there is a huge amount of work to be done, from education to relationship counselling and readiness to work training which we should be focused on instead of being bossed around by rulings of the European Court.”
What do you think? Let Steve know via [email protected]
Pictured; Prisoners are set to win the right to vote thanks to a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (courtesy of www.insidetime.org)