Jess Varnish to consider appeal after losing employment tribunal against British Cycling and UK Sport

Jess Varnish will take time to consider whether to appeal after losing her employment tribunal.

The 28-year-old, whose due date for her first child was today, had tried to prove she was an employee of British Cycling and UK Sport.

But following her tribunal, which her team referred to as “a David and Goliath battle”, yesterday’s landmark judgement — potentially likened to the Bosman ruling — went against her.

Had she won, it could have had major ramifications for Olympic and Paralympic sport, with athletes on National Lottery funding effectively deemed as employees and thereby eligible for employment rights and pensions.

British Cycling and UK Sport are estimated to have spent close to £1million on the legal fight, using three barristers and 10 lawyers to argue a case that would have had massive legal and financial implications if it had lost.

Varnish was expected to put an official statement out through her representatives today and an appeal is believed to be among the options considered.

Her lawyers, Constantine Law, have been poring through the 43-page judgement since it was handed over yesterday. That judgement is expected to be made public today and her legal team, headed by Simon Fenton, are seeing if there are any potential loopholes on which to appeal. But her camp have made it clear that there “won’t be an appeal for appeal’s sake”.

Despite losing the case, which her team believed was 50-50 when it reached its conclusion before Christmas, Varnish will not be left with a hefty bill, her lawyers having worked on a no-win, no-fee basis.

And there is an argument that despite losing, which also means she is now unlikely to sue for wrongful dismissal and sex discrimination against both bodies, she has had some success. It may act as scant consolation but both British Cycling and UK Sport had admitted to having changed as organisations during the tribunal, which is unlikely to have happened without Varnish’s action.

In addition, other national governing bodies have taken a closer look at their own in-house policies after the bullying row first emerged nearly two years ago.It stemmed from Varnish being axed from National Lottery funding in the build-up to the Rio Olympics, at which time she claimed team boss Shane Sutton had told her to “go have a baby”, a claim Sutton still denies.