James Welch, legal director at Liberty and the solicitor for a number of key cases in this area, welcomed the news:

"The decision on the widow's payment and widowed mother's allowance confirms what we've long argued - and what the government has recognised in practice by settling so many cases previously. But that's scant consolation to the thousands who lost out and who do not have a claim already in process - who now find themselves out of time and with no apparent prospect of the government accepting that they too should have been paid these benefits.

"Today's ruling still doesn't resolve whether the failure to pay widow's pension to men widowed before 9th April 2001 (when the law changed) is a breach of human rights. We believe it is (although the UK courts have ruled otherwise - in a case currenlty subject to appeal) - and we hope that one of the 200-plus widowers' cases still pending against the UK in Europe will resolve this".