Mr Wheeler has previously said that he would study the judge’s verdict before deciding whether to appeal.
10am: Statement from Global Vision:
"Global Vision is disappointed with the ruling today by Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Mackay that the Lisbon Treaty is materially different from the Constitution. The Government, therefore, is considered within its rights to break its promise to hold a referendum on the new EU Treaty.
Ruth Lea, Director of Global Vision, said:
“Today’s ruling by the High Court is extremely dispiriting especially as many European politicians have made it quite clear that the Lisbon Treaty is the Constitutional Treaty in all but name. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for example, said ‘The substance of the Constitution is preserved. That is a fact.’ Indeed British politicians are effectively alone in claiming that there significant differences of substance between the Lisbon Treaty and the Constitution.”
“Under these circumstances, the British people are surely entitled to their referendum on the Treaty as the Irish people did. All our polling shows an overwhelming majority in favour of a referendum.”"
11.10am: Statement from Jim McConalogue of the European Foundation:
“The rejection of both Stuart Wheeler’s case for a referendum and Bill Cash’s application for a case to prevent UK ratification of the Treaty after the Irish vote in the High Court is unacceptable since it is an invitation for the Government to continue the unlawful ratification of this Treaty. The United Kingdom Parliament’s own European Scrutiny Committee already declared the Lisbon Treaty ‘substantially equivalent’ to the EU Constitution, so it is not clear why the High Court would override that parliamentary conclusion. Since the conclusion of Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Mackay cannot be reconciled with the fact that the Lisbon Treaty and EU Constitution are ‘substantially equivalent’, I strongly sympathise with Mr Wheeler’s intention to appeal the verdict.”