Sinn Fein to take oath challenge to European Court

Sinn Fein said yesterday that it was prepared to fight all the way to the European Court to win access to the facilities of the House of Commons after Martin McGuinness lost the first round of a court battle yesterday to challenge the oath of allegiance to the Queen.

The party insisted it would not give up after Mr Justice Kerr ruled in the High Court in Belfast that the Mid-Ulster MP could not apply for a judicial review. Mr McGuinness had sought to challenge a ruling by Speaker Betty Boothroyd that he and Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, MP for West Belfast, could not use the facilities of the Commons because they had not taken their seats. To take their seats the two men have to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen - which they have refused to do.

The judge said the Speaker's ruling lay within the realm of the internal arrangements of the Commons and was therefore not subject to a judicial review. "The House is entitled to unfettered control of its own internal arrangement."