A landmark court ruling on whether a gay man can legally inherit his partner's full retirement fund has been rejected in a major setback for gay rights. The Court of Appeal ruled that the man is legally entitled to pass only £500 of his final salary pension on to his partner when he dies, instead of £41,000, the amount he would legally be allowed leave to a wife.

Lawyers describe the case as the most important concerning sexual discrimination in pensions since the 1990s. It relates to a legal loophole that leaves hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbian couples who are married and in civil partnerships worse off in retirement than everyone else.

John Walker, the man who lost the case, said: “It is utterly reprehensible that my employer - Innospec - a large, successful company with a pension fund surplus – is unwilling to follow the example of the vast majority of major British companies in giving homosexual partners exactly the same spousal benefits as heterosexuals. Read More via Telegraph