A date has been fixed for a challenge to the British Labour Party ban on Northern Ireland residents, it emerged today.
Mr Andy McGivern will attempt to overturn the controversial rule at the County Court in London on November 11th.
The 48-year-old shop steward, from Bangor, Co Down, began legal proceedings earlier this year after the party rejected numerous appeals to allow him to join.
He is accusing the Labour Party of racial discrimination against people from Northern Ireland.
Mr McGivern said he regarded the court date as appropriate. "I see that date as very significant in that it is Remembrance Day, the day that we remember people who died throughout the whole of Ireland, who fought for democracy.
"The case against the Labour Party is a fight for democracy for the people of Northern Ireland," he said.
Mr McGivern, who works at Belfast-based aerospace company Shorts, is being supported by the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and his own union, the GMB.
He appealed to Labour to give him his membership, saying: "I don't want to take the party to court, I just want to join."
His campaign began last May after he sent off papers applying to join the party. They directed me to the SDLP, their sister party. I went back to them and said I wasn't prepared to accept that," he added.
Eventually he received an email from 10 Downing Street saying they saw no useful purpose in him pursuing the matter.
Angered by the message, he contacted the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland and the Commission for Racial Equality.
PA