John Hirst, who was convicted of manslaughter in 1980 and took the Government to court on prisoners voting, defended his own actions in a lively interview with Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics.

Mr Hirst was asked about his case as they debated why prisoners should get the vote, regardless of their crime.

The Government is poised to give up its long-running legal tussle with the European Court of Human Rights and remove the blanket voting ban on British prisoners.

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 compensation.

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