Former attorney general attacks new justice secretary
Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, has accused the new justice secretary of failing in his duty to uphold the law.
In a sharply worded letter to The Times this week, Lord Goldsmith said Chris Grayling had “failed” his first test by “telling Parliament in effect that it could disregard the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights” on prisoners’ votes. This was “the opposite of upholding the rule of law”, he said.
Lord Goldsmith, who referred in the letter to the fact Grayling is not a lawyer, concluded: “One cannot imagine former Lords Chancellor such as Hailsham, Mackay or Irvine making this mistake.”
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the UK’s blanket ban on prisoners being allowed to vote is unlawful.
Grayling told MPs last week that Parliament was sovereign and that they could, if they wished, reject the court’s ruling. He added there would be a political cost to doing this. He laid a draft Bill before Parliament with options of keeping the blanket ban or giving the vote to prisoners sentenced to four years or six months.
Up to 3,000 prisoners could bring compensation claims for breach of their human rights if the government continues with a blanket ban.
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