British expats have lost their urgent Court of Appeal battle for the right to vote in the European referendum.

The court upheld a Government rule that says Britons who have lived in other EU countries for more than 15 years are not eligible to vote on June 23.

The appeal judges declared the rule did not unlawfully interfere with the right of expats to freedom of movement within the European Union.

The test case was brought by London-born war veteran Harry Shindler, 95, who has lived in Italy for 35 years, and solicitor Jacquelyn MacLennan, 54, from Inverness, who has lived in Brussels since 1987, specialising in EU competition and environmental law, and now a partner in the Brussels' office of a global law firm.

Lawyers for the pair say the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, has already agreed to hear the case next Tuesday, in a last-ditch attempt to win the vote.

Responding to the appeal court judgment, Mr Shindler said: "I am still waiting for the Government to tell us why British citizens in Europe can't vote in this referendum.

"The Government had agreed to scrap the 15-year rule before the Referendum Bill was passed, agreeing it was arbitrary and undemocratic."

Law firm Leigh Day, which is representing both claimants, say up to two million British citizens are being unlawfully denied the right to vote.

Mr Shindler is barred from the franchise because he failed a test of "closeness of connection" to the UK, despite being born in London, fighting in the nation's armed forces and still being a taxpayer.

The expat cannot join the battle against Brexit, as he wishes, because he has lived in Italy for some 35 years.

The UK passport holder was in the Second World War landings at Anzio and came to love Italy. His big fear is that a Brexit vote could lose him EU citizenship and seriously disrupt his way of life in Italy.

In 2014 he was awarded an MBE for his services to Anglo-Italian relations. He still pays taxes on his pension to HM Revenue and Customs.

Mr Shindler has been told his "diminished or diluted" links to the UK through living abroad for so long disqualified him from voting.

Section 2 of the EU Referendum Act 2015 excludes expats from voting if they have been living elsewhere in the EU for more than 15 years.

Rejecting the expat challenge, three appeal judges - Lord Dyson, Master of the Rolls, sitting with Lord Justice Elias and Lady Justice King - declared the 15-year rule did not amount to an unjustified restriction on EU law rights to freedom of movement or to the common law right to vote.

Summing up the ruling, Lord Dyson said the 2015 Act did not fall within the scope of EU law at all and the challenge "falls at the first hurdle".

The judge said the EU recognised that a decision of a member state on whether or not to withdraw from the EU was "an exercise of national sovereignty" governed by a country's own constitutional arrangements.

Even if the 2015 Act was within the scope of EU law, said the judge, it did not amount to a restriction on free movement rights.

Parliament had the right to determine the scope of the referendum.

Any common law right to vote did not take precedence over an Act of Parliament, said the judge.

The appeal court refused the expats permission to take their case to the Supreme Court - but they still have the right to ask the Supreme Court judges to consider their case, and a hearing has already been listed for next Tuesday.

Ms MacLennan said: "I am disappointed with the Court of Appeal's judgment.

"I hope the Supreme Court will agree that the 15-year rule is wrong and unlawful in the context of the EU referendum.

"Brexit would have a huge impact on my personal and professional life. Excluding two million citizens like me from voting - as the Government recognises - is unjust and unfair."