MPs today began an historic debate that could see Parliament rebuke the European courts for the first time.

David Cameron has given members the green light to defy unelected judges who want to give British prisoners the vote.

MPs will formally vote tonight on a motion which – if passed – will send out a clear signal that MPs are fed up with seeing their law-making powers usurped by diktats from Strasbourg.

The Prime Minister yesterday made it crystal clear he expects Parliament to express its views. He pointedly cut adrift Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke – who had insisted prisoners would ‘obviously’ have to be enfranchised.

Instead, he told the Commons that he had ‘every sympathy’ with Tory MPs furious at the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

The demand by prisoners to be given the vote was flatly rejected by the British courts a decade ago. The High Court ruled the issue was a matter solely for Parliament and not for judges.