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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/mps-to-back-ban-on-prisoner-votes.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said the Government could not defy the law and would have to allow some prisoners to vote" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/min-mps-to-back-ban-on-prisoner-votes.jpg" alt="Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said the Government could not defy the law and would have to allow some prisoners to vote"/></a></p>
<p>MPs are expected to exhort the Government to defy the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and refuse to give the vote to prisoners.</p>
<p>The Strasbourg court&#8217;s highly contentious demand for an end to the blanket ban on inmates taking part in national and European elections is to be debated in the Commons.</p>
<p>The House is expected to overwhelmingly support a cross-party motion stating that the matter should be left to &#8220;democratically-elected lawmakers&#8221; and supporting the status quo.</p>
<p>It has been tabled by senior Tory MP David Davis and backed by Labour former home secretary Jack Straw as ministers wrestle with how best to deal with the ECHR ruling.</p>
<p>Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday he saw &#8220;no reason&#8221; why prisoners should be given the vote. He has said in the past that the idea makes him feel &#8220;physically ill&#8221;.</p>
<p>However, hundreds of prisoners have instigated claims for being denied the right to vote and the Government is facing potential compensation bills of more than £100 million. It has proposed to allow the vote to inmates serving less than four years, although there have been signs that that might be reduced still further.</p>
<p>Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has spoken repeatedly of doing &#8220;the minimum necessary&#8221; to comply with the law and said the Government will have to allow at least some prisoners to vote in future.</p>
<p>MPs opposed to giving prisoners the vote hope that by debating the matter and passing a motion rejecting the move will steel the Government&#8217;s resolve and strengthen its hand with the ECHR. The Strasbourg court&#8217;s judgment in October 2005 cited the fact that there had been no substantive debate of the ban, which was introduced in 1870.</p>
<p>Mr Cameron told the Commons he had &#8220;every sympathy&#8221; with Tory MP Priti Patel&#8217;s &#8220;disdain&#8221; for the &#8220;unelected bureaucrats in Strasbourg&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;I see no reason why prisoners should have the vote. This is not a situation that I want this country to be in,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I am sure that you will all have a very lively debate on Thursday, when the House makes its views known.&#8221;</p>
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