Boris Johnson could be summoned to court to face accusations of misconduct in public office over his infamous pledge to claw back £350m a week from Brussels for the NHS.
Lawyers accused the former foreign secretary of lying to voters during the 2016 referendum campaign, as part of efforts to launch a private prosecution by the Brexit Justice campaign.
Mr Johnson, who is a frontrunner to succeed Theresa May, has already been rapped by the statistics watchdog for using the figure, which was splashed across the side of a Vote Leave campaign bus.
A barrister acting for Marcus Ball, who has accused Mr Johnson of abusing public trust, lodged an application to summons the Tory MP at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
“Democracy demands responsible and honest leadership from those in public office,” Lewis Power QC told the court.
“The conduct of the proposed defendant Boris Johnson was both irresponsible and dishonest. It was, we say, criminal.”
Mr Power said the Brexiteer had deliberately misled the public during the referendum campaign and then repeated the statement during the 2017 general election.
He said the case did not seek to undermine the result of the Brexit referendum but to focus only on the claims made by Mr Johnson.
Mr Power added: “The allegation with which this prosecution is concerned, put simply, is Mr Johnson repeatedly misrepresented the amount that the UK sends to Europe each week.
“It is concerned with one infamous statement: ‘We send the EU £350m a week.’
“The UK has never sent, given or provided £350m a week to Europe – that statement is simply not ambiguous.
“The prosecution is not about Brexit, the only relevance to Brexit is that it was during the Brexit referendum Mr Johnson chose to mislead the public.”
Since launching last year, Mr Ball claims to have raised more than £200,000 through crowdfunding campaigns to fund the court case.
Mr Johnson was not in court for the hearing, but his lawyer Adrian Darbishire said his client denies acting dishonestly.
He said: “I should make it clear that because of the interest in this case that it is absolutely denied by Mr Johnson that he acted in an improper or dishonest manner at any time.”
District judge Margot Coleman said would inform both parties of her decision on 29 May.
The case continues.
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