David Cameron vows prisoners will not get the vote

David Cameron was at loggerheads with the Government’s chief law officer today over giving convicted prisoners the vote.

The Prime Minister attempted to reassure Tory MPs he will not cave in to European judges by letting jail inmates take part in general elections.

Addressing the Commons he vowed: “No one should be in any doubt. Prisoners are not getting the vote under this Government.”

However, his pledge clashed with evidence given hours earlier to a Commons committee by Tory MP Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, who said a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on Britain’s blanket ban on voting by prisoners “imposes an international legal obligation on us”.

Mr Grieve said Britain would suffer “reputationally” if it ignored its international obligations and, ultimately, could be expelled from the Council of Europe, which oversees the ECHR. The conflicting words left Conservative MPs anxious that the Government might be forced to make concessions to prisoners who are seeking hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages for being denied the vote.

Among compromises being talked of privately are giving the vote to people sentenced to less than three months, allowing votes in general elections for those sentenced to less than four years, and letting those sentenced by magistrates rather than crown court judges have the vote.

The storm came after a Guardian report that draft laws drawing the line at four years were being prepared for a deadline in three weeks set by the European court. Downing Street denied the report but was unable to say what the Government’s response would be.

Last year MPs voted by a margin of 234 to 22 to keep a blanket ban. But the Government is also under pressure to find a compromise that prevents it having to pay damages to ex-prisoners.

Tory MPs warned of a massive revolt if there was a cave-in. Nick de Bois, secretary of the powerful 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, said: “Parliament has expressed its will very clearly and there should be no attempt to legislate to allow prisoners who forfeited their civil rights to vote.”

When Mr de Bois posted on Twitter that he was among six Tory MPs who “won’t vote for it” at a Commons table, colleague Douglas Carswell tweeted back: “Make it 7.”