Christians differ over whether prisoners should be allowed to vote

MPs are set to debate a motion that upholds Britain’s blanket ban on voting rights for prisoners, which has been declared unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights.

The motion has been tabled by former Tory shadow home secretary David Davis and former Labour Justice Secretary Jack Straw.

It has the support of Prime Minister David Cameron who said there was “no reason” why prisoners should be entitled to vote, while Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has said the Government has no choice but to comply with the European Court’s ruling and “fulfil our obligations”.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, waded into the debate by saying that the civic status of prisoners should not be put in “cold storage” while they are serving their sentences. He said there was a need to move beyond a situation in which the “victimising of the prisoner” is perpetuated by the denial of basic civil rights.

Nick Spencer, Research Director Theos, however, is strongly against any voting rights for prisoners.

He said there were “significant issues at stake”.

“It would be entirely wrong to give prisoners a carte blanche right to vote,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean to say that some prisoners in some circumstances shouldn’t have the right, that some prisoners as part of their rehabilitation could be granted the vote.

“But the idea that prisoners period should have the right to vote is morally unacceptable.”

Ian Chisnall, County Ecumenical Officer for Churches Together in Sussex, argued that enabling prisoners to participate in the electoral process would not merely help facilitate their rehabilitation but also give them needed representation.

He said: "Along with the opportunity to vote comes the need for representation to be expressed. Most local MPs pride themselves on their regular constituent surgeries and many claim that one of the reasons why they are prepared to stand is to make a difference in the lives of their constituents.

"There are few groups in society whose needs are as great as those in prison by a number of measures, or whose actions create such an impact on society as a whole (in perception terms at least).

"For this group of 80,000 individuals to have so little recourse to representation and advocacy by lawmakers seems to me to be mutually disadvantageous to the prisoner and civil society at large."

The cross-party motion also states that “no sentenced prisoner” should receive the vote except those serving time for debt default or contempt of court.

Mr Davis admitted that the vote was as much as about Britain’s right to decide some of its own laws, telling Sky News this morning that the decision over prisoners’ votes should be left to democratically elected lawmakers.

“The other half of this is who should decide about it. Who should decide what happens in our prisons? Who should decide how we run our democracy?” he said.

“Should it be a court of a large number of politically appointed judges, many of whom don’t have legal experience and almost none of whom have experience of our particular unique legal system?

“My answer to that is ‘no’, it is us who should decide, it is the British parliamentarians on behalf of the British people.”

Mr Davis said he expected to the vote by a majority of more than a hundred this afternoon.