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Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in the race to become Britain’s next prime minister, will be summoned to court over allegations he lied to the public during the Brexit referendum campaign.
The former foreign secretary is facing a private prosecution, following a crowdfunding campaign led by 26-year-old Marcus Ball.
“The (proposed) defendant repeatedly lied and misled the British public as to the cost of EU membership, expressly stating, endorsing or inferring that the cost of EU membership was £350 million ($442 million) per week,” the application against Johnson said.
The number was a central and controversial part of the pro-Leave campaign’s narrative, famously emblazoned across the side of a campaign bus.
Opponents argued that it was deliberately misleading and it became symbolic of the divisions caused by the Brexit referendum.
Johnson will be required to attend Westminster Magistrates’ Court for a preliminary hearing, and then the Crown Court for trial.
“Having considered all the relevant factors I am satisfied that this is a proper case to issue the summons as requested for the three offences as drafted,” District Judge Margot Coleman said in a written ruling yesterday morning.
The judge said the allegations against Johnson were “unproven”, but added that issuing a summons was proper.
In 2017, the UK Statistics Authority criticised Johnson for doubling down on the figure in a newspaper column. In a formal letter to Johnson, then foreign secretary, Sir David Norgrove, chair of the authority, said it was “a clear misuse of official statistics”.
Ball, who has led the legal campaign against Johnson, spent more than two years preparing the case, and raised more than $500 000 to fund the action, Huffington Post reported.
His legal team is hoping to make it a criminal offence for politicians to lie to the public about spending figures, but also maintains that Johnson is innocent until proven guilty, and appealed to the public “to respect the formality of the court process”.
Johnson’s office has yet to reply to requests for comment.
– AFP
Online Reporter