MEP blasts call to give the vote to prisoners

UK Independence Party MEP Paul Nuttall, whose North West constituency includes the Ribble Valley, says he is totally against the move to allow prisoners to vote in elections.

Following a European Court of Human Rights case, the blanket deprivation of prisoners’ right to vote in UK elections has been declared unlawful.

“Prisoners have broken their contract with society and obviously have no respect for the human rights of others, so why should we afford them the right to vote?” said Mr Nuttall.

“It is another case of politically correct nonsense, which sends out the signal to criminals that society has gone soft. But I fear in due course some prisoners will be able to vote because we remain bound by our Treaty obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, effectively to implement the judgement and because the Human Rights Act 1998 incorporates the convention into UK law.

“The only way of preventing prisoners from voting, therefore, is for the UK to resile from the Convention, repeal the Act and replace both with a new UK BIll of Rights.”