Sunday, 9. November 2008
Topic: EU - on November 9, 2008 at 11:02:00 AM CET
Ban on votes for prisoners is illegal, says EU
The government must give prisoners the right to vote or the next general election will be illegal under European law, ministers have been warned by parliament's influential Joint Committee on Human Rights.
The committee's conclusion threatens a constitutional crisis for Labour, which has tried to bury the issue ever since the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2005 that inmates should have the vote. The committee, comprising six MPs and six peers, has written to the Ministry of Justice saying the government must urgently change the law so that the majority of Britain's 84,000 prisoners are given the right before the country next goes to the polls.
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