THE High Court today rejected a bid to force the Government to hold a referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty. Two judges rejected Stuart Wheeler's claim that he was being unlawfully denied a vote in breach of his legitimate expectation that there would be a public ballot.

THE High Court today rejected a bid to force the Government to hold a referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty. Two judges rejected Stuart Wheeler's claim that he was being unlawfully denied a vote in breach of his legitimate expectation that there would be a public ballot.

The spread betting tycoon, who is a major donor to the Conservative Party, argued that the expectation arose after Government ministers promised a referendum on the failed EU constitution which the treaty replaces.

They said the evidence showed that the Constitutional Treaty, rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005, the Reform Treaty (the Lisbon Treaty) were one and the same, except in name.

However, Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Mackay dismissed his application for judicial review. .

They said: “We have found nothing in the claimant's case to cast doubt on the lawfulness of ratifying the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum.”