Leader of the Opposition says he will pardon more of the 49,000 men convicted of indecency for having consensual gay sex under what he called ‘Turing’s Law’ if elected to Government in May.
Currently men convicted for having relations with men under 21 but over 16 can have their convictions quashed on a case by case application basis. But Ed Miliband told Gay Times that he would allow families of those convicted to apply for a pardon. This would extend pardons to the many who have died or who are no longer capable of making their own applications.
However this still fall short of a blanket automatic pardon for the 49,000 as requested in a letter signed by Stephen Fry, Benedict Cumberbatch and Peter Tatchell last month. This in turn followed the posthumous pardon David Cameron gave to Alan Turing on Christmas Eve 2013.