The widow of solicitor Pat Finucane has been granted permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court over her failed legal bid to overturn the UK government’s refusal to hold an inquiry into his 1989 murder.

Geraldine Finucane and her family are long-time campaigners for a public inquiry into the murder of Mr Finucane.

He was shot in his Belfast home by loyalist paramilitaries who the UK government has acknowledged were colluding with security forces.

Mrs Finucane has repeatedly argued in court that the previous Labour-led administration had promised an inquiry would be held and Prime Minister David Cameron had unlawfully reneged on this.

Solicitor Peter Madden of Madden & Finucane Solicitors said: “The only way that the full truth about Pat’s murder can be firmly established, and the extent to which a policy of extra-judicial assassination of which Pat was a victim was authorised by government is by a full transparent public inquiry where witnesses and documents are subject to intense scrutiny.

“We will seek to persuade the Supreme Court at the hearing of this appeal that David Cameron acted unlawfully in refusing a public inquiry and that the Court should quash his decision.”