WIDOWERS who have been denied pensions under the Government?s reform of bereavement benefits are to be represented in the House of Lords by a barrister who lives in West Devon. Geoffrey Cox, a QC specialising in constitutional law, will argue the case for those who have challenged the Government over its refusal to give widowers the same benefits as women receive on the death of their spouse since 2000. Mr Cox, who is also Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for West Devon and Torridge, said: ?When a woman works hard and pays her national insurance contributions during her life she should enjoy the same right as a man to know that her contributions will ensure that her husband would get help if she were to die. ?However, all these widowers have been denied any help at all, even though their wives, in many cases, worked and paid contributions all their lives before they died.? The battle has been fought out in the courts, with the widowers winning declarations that their rights had been broken in the Court of Appeal in 2003. The Government appealed to the House of Lords. Mr Cox said the Lords? decision would not be expected for some months but that, if necessary, the next step would be to go to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. ?Many of the widowers are in real hardship and have been left to bring up young children. We have got this far and we are not going to give up,? he said. Mr Cox said he became involved with the case when a widower living in West Devon contacted him.