Britain's former Foreign Secretary and prominent Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson will be summoned to court over allegations that he lied and misled the public during the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016, District Judge Margot Coleman ruled today.
According to her, Johnson will answer questions about his possible misconduct in public office, when he claimed Britain contributed 350 million pounds ($442 million) to the European Union each week. No date has yet been set for a hearing.
Johnson was a key figure in the “leave” campaign advocating a break with the EU. The campaign emblazoned a bus with a promise that voting for Brexit would mean that instead of sending substantial money to the EU, the cash could be used to fund Britain’s National Health Service, the Washington Post reported.
Britain’s statistics regulator has said Johnson’s claim about the 350 million pounds was misleading and a “gross misuse of official statistics.”
Lawyers representing Marcus Ball, an activist pursuing a private prosecution of Johnson, asked Westminster Magistrates’ Court to summon the politician. Ball and his legal team assert that Johnson deliberately misled the public during the referendum and then in the general election of 2017.
