A High Court judge in Belfast has ruled the British Prime Minister did not act unlawfully when he refused a public inquiry into the loyalist murder of Pat Finucane.

The solicitor was shot dead in front of his wife and three children at their north Belfast home in 1989.

His family have long campaigned for a full public inquiry and brought a judicial review against the British Government's 2011 decision not to hold a statutory probe.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan is reiterating that the Government here would like to see an independent public inquiry into the murder.