Crispin Blunt warned justice secretary Chris Grayling he was 'setting up a crisis' over human rights in Europe
The justice secretary, Chris Grayling, was accused by former justice minister Crispin Blunt of "setting up a crisis" over human rights in Europe when the two clashed in a Westminster committee over prisoners being allowed to vote.
The public clash between two prominent Conservatives over enforcing the controversial ruling by Strasbourg judges that prisoners should be allowed to vote highlights mounting political tension within the party over the UK's fraught relationship with Europe.
In response to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision, first announced in 2005, that a blanket ban on inmates being allowed to participate in elections was illegal, the government has published a multiple choice bill with three options – one of which proposes retaining the ban and defying Strasbourg.
Earlier this month, Thorbjørn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council of Europe, which oversees the ECHR, warned that if the UK, a founder member of the human rights system, refused to enforce the judgment it would weaken and deprive it of any meaning.
Appearing on Wednesday before a Westminster hearing of the joint committee of MPs and peers considering the draft prisoner voting bill, the justice secretary conceded that the rights of prisoners to vote was not a fundamental political question and that there were even reasonable arguments in its favour as a means of enhancing rehabilitation of offenders.
But, he continued: "Sometimes issues of principle are not large in scale ... I think this issue has been of totemic importance to this country in a debate about who governs Britain."
Blunt, a member of the select committee and a gay former minister who has fought off a deselection campaign in his affluent Surrey constituency, pointed out that the Strasbourg court "has advanced equality around sexuality in the UK.
"We are setting up a crisis here around the UK's membership of the council of Europe, around prisoner voting ... Set against what is happening in the rest of Europe where there is language being used by the president of Russia in speeches to the Duma, around the rights of minorities, that frankly would do credit to some speeches being made in the 1930s in Germany. Don't you have a duty to other nationalities not to upset the only transnational human rights system within Europe?"
Grayling replied: "One the one hand there will be those who argue that, as you have argued ... we have an obligation to remain as a beacon at the heart of the international system and that we should fulfil what its rulings are come what may.
"And there will be those that argue that there's a real debate about who governs Britain and that the remit of the court has gone far too far with the unlimited jurisprudence that it has and that that is no longer acceptable."
The Justice Secretary said the ECHR had "reached the point where it had lost democratic acceptability." Asked how he would vote on the prisoner voting bill, Grayling explained that he was torn between his duty as Lord Chancellor to uphold the rule of law and his personal political antipathy towards the "unfettered" rule of judges in Europe.
It was up to parliament, he stressed, to decide on the issue. The Conservative party is due to publish its proposals next spring for renegotiating the UK's relationship with the European Court of Human Rights. The prime minister, David Cameron, has repeatedly said he is opposed to granting prisoners the right to vote. Reported by guardian.co.uk 7 hours ago.
The justice secretary, Chris Grayling, was accused by former justice minister Crispin Blunt of "setting up a crisis" over human rights in Europe when the two clashed in a Westminster committee over prisoners being allowed to vote.
The public clash between two prominent Conservatives over enforcing the controversial ruling by Strasbourg judges that prisoners should be allowed to vote highlights mounting political tension within the party over the UK's fraught relationship with Europe.
In response to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision, first announced in 2005, that a blanket ban on inmates being allowed to participate in elections was illegal, the government has published a multiple choice bill with three options – one of which proposes retaining the ban and defying Strasbourg.
Earlier this month, Thorbjørn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council of Europe, which oversees the ECHR, warned that if the UK, a founder member of the human rights system, refused to enforce the judgment it would weaken and deprive it of any meaning.
Appearing on Wednesday before a Westminster hearing of the joint committee of MPs and peers considering the draft prisoner voting bill, the justice secretary conceded that the rights of prisoners to vote was not a fundamental political question and that there were even reasonable arguments in its favour as a means of enhancing rehabilitation of offenders.
But, he continued: "Sometimes issues of principle are not large in scale ... I think this issue has been of totemic importance to this country in a debate about who governs Britain."
Blunt, a member of the select committee and a gay former minister who has fought off a deselection campaign in his affluent Surrey constituency, pointed out that the Strasbourg court "has advanced equality around sexuality in the UK.
"We are setting up a crisis here around the UK's membership of the council of Europe, around prisoner voting ... Set against what is happening in the rest of Europe where there is language being used by the president of Russia in speeches to the Duma, around the rights of minorities, that frankly would do credit to some speeches being made in the 1930s in Germany. Don't you have a duty to other nationalities not to upset the only transnational human rights system within Europe?"
Grayling replied: "One the one hand there will be those who argue that, as you have argued ... we have an obligation to remain as a beacon at the heart of the international system and that we should fulfil what its rulings are come what may.
"And there will be those that argue that there's a real debate about who governs Britain and that the remit of the court has gone far too far with the unlimited jurisprudence that it has and that that is no longer acceptable."
The Justice Secretary said the ECHR had "reached the point where it had lost democratic acceptability." Asked how he would vote on the prisoner voting bill, Grayling explained that he was torn between his duty as Lord Chancellor to uphold the rule of law and his personal political antipathy towards the "unfettered" rule of judges in Europe.
It was up to parliament, he stressed, to decide on the issue. The Conservative party is due to publish its proposals next spring for renegotiating the UK's relationship with the European Court of Human Rights. The prime minister, David Cameron, has repeatedly said he is opposed to granting prisoners the right to vote. Reported by guardian.co.uk 7 hours ago.