The crowdfunded bid at London’s high court to challenge the controversial Tory-DUP parliamentary deal with the Democratic Unionist party has failed.
Green party parliamentary candidate in West Tyrone, Ciaran McClean, led the bid. Backed by a team of prominent London lawyers, McClean claimed that the deal between Theresa May and the DUP breached the landmark 1998 Good Friday agreement and the Bribery Act.
Funds were raised via a crowdfunding platform, where over £93,000 has been raised.
“Join me in fighting this unlawful action by our Government in buying the DUP votes to keep it in power, a move that is in direct violation of its rigorous impartiality required by the Good Friday Agreement,” it reads on CrowdJustice.
“The Tories are being propped up by the DUP in order to cling to power after the recent election. This horrifies me. It’s straight bribery – money for votes. The deal flies in the face of the Good Friday Agreement, under which the Government is obligated to exercise its power with ‘rigorous impartiality’ on behalf of all the people in the diversity of their identities and traditions. The Government is threatening hard-won peace with their pact with the reactionary DUP.”
On Thursday, the application made by McClean was rejected by two judges.
Lord Justice Sales said that neither of the two grounds relied on in the application was “properly arguable in a court of law. Permission to apply for judicial review should be refused,” he added.
Earlier this month a spokesperson for the Conservative party said: “As the confidence and supply agreement clearly states, the Conservative government ‘will continue to govern in the interests of all parts of the community in Northern Ireland’. The additional funding agreed for Northern Ireland is for the benefit of everyone across society.”
They have declined to comment about the court case specifically.