Boris Johnson has launched an appeal against the summons issued to him in a case accusing him of abusing public trust when he claimed the UK sends £350m to the European Union.
The businessman prosecuting him, campaigner Marcus Ball, 29, said the Tory MP had launched a judicial review application in the Administrative Court.
Johnson’s lawyers will argue the summons issued to him last Wednesday by District Judge Margot Coleman was unlawful, and that the criminal proceedings against him should be suspended until the judicial review application is determined, Ball said.
A spokesman for Johnson declined to comment, the Press Association reports.
The summons issued last week calls Johnson to Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where Ball is attempting to prosecute him for misconduct in a public office.
Ball claims Johnson lied during the referendum campaign by saying that Britain gave £350 million a week to the European Union.
The slogan also claimed that the money could be used to fund the NHS instead.
In 2016 the UK Statistics Authority found the £350m claim, which was plastered across an infamous Vote Leave campaign bus, to be a “clear misuse of official statistics”.
What does ‘misconduct in public office’ mean?
The Crown Prosecution Service sets out the offence as when a “public officer acting as such wilfully neglects to perform his duty and/or wilfully misconducts himself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder without reasonable excuse or justification.
The offence, which dates back to the 13th century, carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
In the case against Johnson, the prosecution has to show evidence that the suspect is a ‘public officer’ and in this case, the fact that Johnson was London mayor and an MP at the time the claim was made, qualifies him as such.
According to the CPS, previous examples of misconduct in public office include: wilful excesses of official authority, ‘malicious’ exercises of official authority, wilful neglect of a public duty, and frauds and deceits.
The private prosecutor has crowdfunded more than £200,000 through an online campaign to prosecute Johnson.
If Johnson is granted judicial review, a more senior judge will decide whether the summons was lawful, and therefore whether any further proceedings will take place.
Ball said fighting Johnson’s judicial review application was a “particularly expensive part of the legal process” and called on the public to donate to his campaign.
“When politicians lie democracy dies,” he said.