FARMERS fighting for a full public inquiry into the crippling foot-and-mouth outbreak have lost their legal battle this morning.

A group of agricultural workers, including Peter Jackson of Little Fryup, near Whitby, took their case for public hearings into the epidemic to the High Court.

They argued that the Government's decision to hold three short inquiries with no public hearing of evidence was inadequate.

The High Court this morning dismissed their argument, but Lord Justice Simon Brown added in his ruling: "I think it important, however, that in dismissing these applications the court does not give the impression that it itself regards the decision to hold the Lessons Learned Inquiry in closed session as necessarily the 'right' decision."

He said it was not for the court to decide whether it was wise or unwise but whether it was open to the Government to make.

"It is, to my mind, pre-eminently a political decision and one for which the Government will ultimately have to answer at the ballot box."

Eight farmers, two vets and five other individuals including hoteliers accused the Government of "forsaking thoroughness in the interests of speed and efficiency".

The judges also heard argument on behalf of media groups that postponement of publication of evidence until a private inquiry had reported was a breach of the "right to know" provisions of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, relating to freedom of expression.