Coalition split as Tories demand UK ECHR withdrawal

Conservative ministers have asked government legal advisors to consider the possibility of Britain leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, following last week’s vote in the House of Commons to reject the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on giving voting rights to prisoners serving sentences of four years or less.

by Ben Fox
Friday, February 18th, 2011

The vote on a backbench motion resulted in 234 votes against prisoners’ voting rights and just 22 votes in favour, despite the
fact that prisoner voting rights has been a Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment in successive general elections.

Prime Minister David Cameron has also promised to scrap plans to introduce a bill later this year responding to rulings on prisoners’ votes from the ECHR, unless an acceptable compromise can be reached that satisfies his MPs.

The ECHR ruled in 2005 and 2010 that Britain’s blanket ban on prisoner voting rights was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is binding on the 47 countries who are members of the Council of Europe. Responding to the vote, the Council of Europe, which oversees the ECHR, stated that it was “deeply disappointed”, adding that Britain would still have to “abide by its international obligations”.

Senior Lib Dems have made it clear they would leave the coalition if there were any attempts to withdraw from the 60-year-old Convention. Any such action would have profound implications for Britain’s status within the European Union, and could lead to demands for withdrawal, as all EU countries are required to provide the human rights contained within the convention.

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  • http://twitter.com/Jailhouselawyer John Hirst

    On the Daily Politics Show, Charles Falconer said: “What is the point of human rights if they are not legally enforceable?”.

    Precisely, so why did he not ensure that the convicted prisoners human right to vote was legally enforceable in the UK when he was in office?

    In the UK it is clear that we do not have a democracy but instead a tyranny. We have a Human Rights Act 1998 which has been shown to be toothless.

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