Phil Woolas fails to alter decision to declare election result void

Former Labour MP Phil Woolas's hopes of regaining his post were dashed yesterday after he failed in a High Court bid to overturn a decision stripping him of his Commons seat.

Mr Woolas, who is banned from standing for election for three years, said there was no avenue open to him to mount a further challenge.

The former minister said: "That is the end, I am out - which I think is unfair and, more importantly, my 70,000 voters will think is unfair."

Three senior judges rejected his legal challenge against the 5 November decision of an election court which declared the 2010 General Election result in the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency void.

In the first judgment of its kind in 99 years, the election court ruled that Mr Woolas was guilty of deliberately lying about his Liberal Democrat rival, Elwyn Watkins.

Later Mr Watkins welcomed the decision, declaring it "a victory for the people of Oldham and Saddleworth".

Mr Woolas, a former immigration minister, had accused Mr Watkins of trying to "woo" the votes of Muslims who advocated violence, and refusing to condemn extremists who advocated violence against Mr Woolas himself.