The family of Archie Battersbee will file an urgent application to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal have prevented them for taking their case to the United Nations, the campaign group supporting them says.

A lawyer representing Archie's parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, from Southend, had asked appeal judges to "stay" the termination of treatment to allow time for consideration of an application to the European court.

Appeal judges imposed a stay and said Archie's parents could have until 2pm on Wednesday to make an application to the European court.

Archie's parents are being supported by a campaign group called the Christian Legal Centre.

A spokesman for the centre said on Wednesday that appeal judges had extended that deadline to 2pm on Thursday, after lawyers made a further, written, request.

The stay was extended only for the purpose of making an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), but not to the United Nations (UN), the spokesman says.

Read more >>> Archie's parents given more time to take treatment fight to European court, spokesman says

Archie's family now plan to apply to the Supreme Court tomorrow for permission to appeal the decision to block them from making an application to the UN.

This is as the centre argues ECHR has a track record of rejecting applications from parents in end-of-life cases such as Archie’s.

They say the UN, like the ECHR, may ask the UK government to delay the withdrawal of life support while a complaint is being investigated.

Appeal judges Sir Andrew McFarlane, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Peter Jackson, on Monday, upheld a ruling by a High Court judge who concluded that doctors could lawfully stop providing life-support treatment to Archie.

Judges have heard that Ms Dance found Archie unconscious on April 7.

She thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge.

The youngster has not regained consciousness.

Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, think he is brain-stem dead and say continued life-support treatment is not in his best interests.

Bosses at the hospital's governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, had asked for decisions on what medical moves were in Archie's best interests.

Another High Court judge, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot, initially considered the case and concluded that Archie was dead.

But Court of Appeal judges upheld a challenge by his parents against decisions taken by Mrs Justice Arbuthnot and said the evidence should be reviewed by Mr Justice Hayden.