Sinn Féin has been refused the chance to be awarded a grant to help with its election policies.
In a High Court judgment in Belfast delivered by Mr Justice Coughlin, the party was told that because its MPs had not taken the oath to the Crown required to sit in the House of Commons, it was not entitled to a policy development grant awarded to political parties with two or more MPs by the Electoral Commission.
Ms Michelle Gildernew, Sinn Féin MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, brought an application for a judicial review claiming that the refusal of the grant went against the European Convention of Human Rights.
Policy development grants were introduced in 2002 in accordance with recommendations from the Neill Committee on Standards in Public Life, which found that political parties were "hard pressed to meet the mounting costs of election campaigns". The SDLP, UUP and DUP each received £133,921.
Ms Gildernew argued that the government was aware that "Sinn Féin would be the only party which, although eligible as a result of the number of its MPs, would be disqualified from any policy grant funding if taking an oath to the Queen was an additional requirement".
She believed this was designed to exclude her party from receiving the grant.
Mr Justice Coughlin said there was no suggestion that Sinn Féin was so lacking in financial resources that its failure to get the grant prevented it from imparting information or ideas, or developing policies for electioneering.