Boris Johnson in legal hot water over claims he lied in the Brexit campaign

Former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson. Photo / AP file

Boris Johnson, the front-runner in the contest to become the next British prime minister, was summoned to appear in court over allegations that he lied during the 2016 campaign for Brexit.

Johnson has been accused of misconduct in a public office for claiming that Britain sends £350 million to the European Union every week.

"I accept that the public offices held by Mr Johnson provide status, but with that status comes influence and authority," District Judge Margot Coleman said in a statement. She did not make any factual findings but determined there was sufficient evidence to send the case to trial.

The ruling comes while jockeying is underway to replace Prime Minister Theresa May, who announced last week she would resign as Conservative Party leader on June 7 and make way for a new prime minister this northern summer. Johnson is one of 11 Conservative MPs who have declared their candidacy. The new leader is expected to be announced in July.

Johnson, who was a popular mayor of London at the time of the Brexit referendum, galvanised the Leave campaign with his support. He famously posed beside the Vote Leave campaign bus, plastered with the slogan: "We send the EU £350m a week. Let's fund our NHS instead."

Michael Gove, another contender for prime minister, embraced the figure as well, saying in an April 2016 speech: "If we left the EU, we would take back control over £19 billion which we currently hand over every year - about £350m each and every week."

Johnson has since upped the estimate. Last year, he told the Guardian: "There was an error on the side of the bus. We grossly underestimated the sum over which we would be able to take back control."

The actual net sum Britain pays into the EU varies from year to year, but independent fact-checkers put the figure at closer to £280m. UK Statistics Authority, a watchdog, has previously reprimanded Johnson for a "clear misuse of official statistics."

Marcus Ball, an activist who crowdfunded nearly US$300,000 to pay for the private prosecution, claimed Johnson "repeatedly lied and misled the British public as to the cost of EU membership."

"Lying on a national and international platform undermines public confidence in politics, undermines the integrity of public referendums and brings both public offices held by the (proposed) defendant into disrepute," Ball said.

This ‘will of the people’ thing, Farage uses it too. The people have many different views and not one ‘collective will’. Perhaps we could all try using ‘reverse the majority vote to leave the EU’ instead https://t.co/jb1jqb0jEh

— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) May 29, 2019

A statement made on behalf of Johnson, outlined in court documents, claimed the prosecution to be a political "stunt."

"Its true purpose is not that it should succeed, but that it should be made at all. And made with as much public fanfare as the prosecution can engender," it read.

Johnson will first be summoned to a preliminary hearing - likely to take place in three to four weeks. A full jury trial, if it went ahead, wouldn't be expected for at least six months.

This is not the first time Johnson has been accused of playing fast and loose with the truth.

He was fired from his job with the Times for allegedly fabricating a quote.

As Brussels correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, he was accused of promoting eurosceptic myths, such as the notion that the EU wanted to impose rules about straight bananas.

Last month, the Daily Telegraph, for which Johnson now writes weekly, was forced to correct a column in which he falsely claimed that polls showed a "no-deal" Brexit was the most popular option "by some margin" with the British public. In its correction, the paper said: "In fact, no poll clearly showed that a no deal Brexit was more popular than the other options."