The former Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson and his son have been refused a legal challenge against Merseyside Police over their arrests last year.
The ex-mayor of the city - and his son David - were both arrested in December last year as part of a Merseyside Police corruption probe.
Both men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation as part of the Operation Aloft probe, which has seen a number of arrests linked to Liverpool City Council.
Both Joe and David Anderson have strongly denied any wrongdoing and both previously confirmed that they had submitted a judicial review against Merseyside Police for unlawful arrest and unlawful search warrants.
Today Merseyside Police confirmed that those legal challenges have not been granted permission to progress in court and said both men remain released under investigation.
In a statement, Mr Anderson's legal team confirmed that permission has been refused to grant the judicial review by the courts and said he will now renew his application.
The statement said: "Permission has been refused in the application to judicially review the lawfulness of Mr Anderson’s arrest. He is in the process of renewing his application.
"It is not correct to say that he has lost the judicial review.
"Mr Anderson denies that he acted unlawfully and is very willing to address allegations if the police have any evidence to put to him. He continues to offer his assistance in the investigation, but maintains that there was no need to arrest the (then) elected Mayor of Liverpool in order to secure that assistance.”
The arrest of the then Mayor of Liverpool in December prompted a four-month government inspection at the city council that he had been in charge of since 2010.
When it arrived in March, Max Caller's report laid out a devastating number of failures at the council - specifically within its regeneration, planning, highways and property management departments.
The report led to government commissioners being sent in to the council, where they will oversee work done by those troubled departments for the next three years.
In recent weeks Mr Anderson has hit back at the report, launching his own website to respond to what he claims are a range of 'lies and smears' within it.
