HUDDERSFIELD MP Barry Sheerman has backed the controversial plan to give prisoners the vote.
The UK Government looks set to be forced to give inmates the right to take part in elections – six years after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that denying them the right was illegal.
Prime Minister David Cameron said if the blanket ban continued, taxpayers could be hit with a £160m bill in compensation payments to prisoners who sued.
He said he felt “physically ill” at the thought of prisoners voting.
Politicians on all sides have expressed outrage.
But Mr Sheerman said his view was that jailbirds should be able to participate.
He said: “The politician in me believes the people I represent would prefer the system to stay as it is.
“My personal view, as someone with Christian pretensions, is that the European judgement is right and all prisoners should have the vote.
“What good do we do divorcing people totally from the community?
“I’m not a wishy washy liberal and on sentences I think the punishment should fit the crime.
“But I think allowing the vote is a way of bringing people back into society.”
Mr Sheerman said a compromise could be reached that would allow certain prisoners but not others to vote.
Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney described the notion of prisoners voting as “outrageous”.
He added: “It’s ridiculous, one of the most ridiculous proposals I’ve heard since I became an MP.
“Long term we have talked about leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and setting up a UK bill on human rights.
“It’s not about there being a divide between those on the right and left, there’s almost total consensus.”
Former magistrate Eddie Jefferson said he was against the idea as well.
He said: “It insults every law abiding person in the country.
“What else are we going to be forced into by the European judiciary?
“The criminal justice system is turning into some sort of Alice in Wonderland situation.
“Are we going to have a situation with MPs running around prisons promising the world to prisoners the way they promise things to law-abiding constituents?
“Foregoing the right to vote is part of the punishment procedure.”
Huddersfield University politics lecturer Pete Woodcock said there were two sides to the argument.
He said: “The bottom line is where does the right to vote come from? Is it a basic human right? There’s a strong case to say that it is, in which case there is no basis to take it away unless you have committed electoral fraud.
“Or is it something granted by society, in which case you can argue it can be taken away.
“The more I think about it, the more I believe the right to participate is a pretty basic human right.
“However, would I be sorry to see rapists and murderers deprived of the vote? No.”
