Prisoners finally get the right to vote

Prisoners are to get the right to vote as the Government prepares to abandon its protracted legal battle with the European Court of Human Rights over the issue, it emerged last night.

It is understood that the Coalition will confirm later this week that it is ready to change the law to remove the voting ban on more than 70,000 inmates of British jails. The move comes after government lawyers advised that failure to comply with a 2004 European Court of Human Rights ruling could cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds in litigation costs and compensation.

David Cameron was reported to be exasperated at being forced to accept that it was impossible to keep the UK's 140-year-old blanket ban on voting by sentenced prisoners.