Tycoon loses personal High Court crusade for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty

Eurosceptic millionaire Stuart Wheeler said today he had "high hopes" of winning on appeal after the High Court rejected his bid to force the Government to hold a referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty.

Two judges rejected his claim that he was being unlawfully denied a vote in breach of his "legitimate expectation" that there would be a public ballot.

The spreadbetting tycoon's lawyers 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 - and the Reform Treaty (the Lisbon Treaty) were one and the same, except in name.

But today Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Mackay dismissed his application for judicial review at the High Court in London.

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."

The judges refused Mr Wheeler, 73, permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal, saying he had no hope of succeeding.

But later a defiant Mr Wheeler said on the steps of the Law Courts that he would ask the appeal court to hear his case.

He said: "I have high hopes of winning on appeal. We shall apply to the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal and we will see what they say."

Mr Wheeler says he believes the Lisbon Treaty is "dead" anyway as a result of its rejection in the referendum in Ireland, but ministers in London have refused to halt the ratification process.

Mr Wheeler, who made more than £30 million from spread-betting firm IG Index, raised tens of thousands of pounds from donors in addition to his own money to fight today's case.

A major Conservative party donor in the past, he says he would like to see Tory leader David Cameron, if he gains power, demand "substantial changes" to the way the EU runs, with British withdrawal as the "ultimate resort" in any negotiations.

Although the UK effectively became the 19th EU state to ratify the Treaty when the EU Amendment Act received Royal Assent earlier this month, the process is not technically completed until the "instruments of ratification" are deposited in Rome.

The Foreign Office has until the end of December to complete this stage - plenty of time for Mr Wheeler to go to the Court of Appeal.

Rabinder Singh QC, appearing for Mr Wheeler, said at a recent two-day hearing that led to today's ruling: "The Government promised a referendum and should keep its promise."

At stake were the fundamental principles "of good administration, fair play and straight dealing with the public", he said.

But Jonathan Sumption QC, appearing for the Office of the Prime Minister, told the judges: "This case is politics dressed up as law."

If the court were to accept Mr Singh's argument, judges could become involved in a wide range of political issues.

He accused Mr Wheeler of acting for the "inappropriate purpose" of seeking to change the political atmosphere by obtaining a court judgment critical of Government decisions "for use as a political manifesto".

The multimillionaire, who made a dramatic entrance to the political scene with a record £5million donation to the Tories in 2001, made his fortune as a spreadbetting pioneer.

In 1974, after a career as a barrister and then a merchant banker, the Eton-educated eurosceptic founded IG Index and saw it become the UK's biggest spread bet firm.

Ranked 1,794th in the Sunday Times Rich List, he sold £7.3million of IG shares in 2002 to buy Chilham Castle in Kent and then sold his remaining stake for £33.7million, the paper said, leaving him worth around £40million today.

Now 73, his interest in high stakes goes beyond the professional, having played bridge with friend Lord Lucan shortly before the peer's disappearance, and with Omar Sharif.

He also realised a dream by taking part in the World Poker Championships in Las Vegas and is said to have been thrown out of the famous Caesar's Palace Casino for not losing.