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TORY leadership favourite Boris Johnson will be summonsed to court to face accusations of misconduct in public office over claims he was lying when he said Britain paid the EU £350 million a week.
Lawyers for campaigner Marcus Ball lodged an application to summons the former foreign secretary and mayor of London — under his full name Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
The private prosecution has the potential to escalate to the crown court.
The claim is that Mr Johnson wilfully misled the public during the 2016 EU referendum campaign with a statement suggesting that £350m a week paid to the EU could instead be spent on the NHS.
He repeated the statement, which was infamously revealed on the side of a Vote Leave campaign bus during the 2017 general election.
In a written decision, District Judge Margot Coleman said: “The allegations which have been made are unproven accusations and I do not make any findings of fact.
“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. The charges are indictable only.
“This means the proposed defendant will be required to attend this court for a preliminary hearing, and the case will then be sent to the crown court for trial.
“The charges can only be dealt with in the crown court.”
Mr Johnson slammed the procedure as a “political stunt.”
He summarised his position by saying: “This application is brought for political purposes. The position presented to the court is that this is a disinterested attempt to improve the standards of political debate.”
Mr Ball has raised more than £200,000 to pay for the private prosecution through a “Brexit Justice” crowdfunding campaign. He has worked full-time on the prosecution case since June 2016.
Conservative former Cabinet minister and barrister David Mellor criticised the magistrate’s ruling as “nutty” and “nonsense.”
He added: “Politicians at election times exaggerate, and say things that may or may not be true, and it’s the electorate, not the courts, who should decide whether they are reliable or not.”
