Boris Johnson has been warned he has just hours to respond to claims he lied about the UK sending £350,000,000 a week to Brussels – or face prosecution.

The clock is ticking for the Vote Leave figurehead after a private prosecutor announced plans to take him to court over figures plastered over his big red bus.

Marcus Ball said: ‘During the 2016 referendum I witnessed the disgusting demonstration of the depths to which our political professionals were willing to stoop.

Boris Johnson is facing claims he lied over how much we send to the EU (Picture: Getty)

‘I want to prevent conduct of that kind from becoming the normal political standard in UK politics.


‘I knew that if we could win a prosecution against such immoral and untrustworthy actions the precedent could make it illegal for them to occur in future.’



The former Foreign Secretary was notified on November 16 of the intention to bring a private court case over alleged misconduct in public office.

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He was given 28 days to reply and that deadline expires at the end of Friday December 14. So far Mr Johnson and his team have remained silent.

Mr Ball told Metro.co.uk there was no legal requirement for Mr Johnson to respond and it was purely a ‘courtesy’ for him ‘to present his own version of events’.

He added that if the politician could provide evidence that his Brexit claims were true then they would not be able to go ahead with their private legal battle.

However, if he doesn’t then ‘we will certainly be going on with the prosecution.’

The Brexit bus claimed the UK sends £350,000,000 a week to Brussels (Picture: PA)

Mr Ball alleges the claim, made or endorsed by Mr Johnson during the 2016 referendum campaign, that the UK ‘sends £350 million a week to the EU’ was knowingly false and made with the intention to sway votes.

He has spent two years preparing the case and raising finance, and has instructed solicitors Bankside Commercial to bring a prosecution on his behalf.

They have retained the services of Lewis Power QC and two other barristers from Church Court Chambers to handle the case.

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When previously asked if he was mounting the case in a bid to prevent Britain leaving the EU, Mr Ball said: ‘This is about stopping lying in politics; this is not about stopping Brexit, the courts do not have the power to do that.

‘We do need to stop politicians from lying in any future referendums though.

The motivation for this prosecution is a desire to bring a beginning to the end of lying in politics.’

Mr Ball said his team looked into claims made by both Leave and Remain during the Brexit referendum.

Marcus Ball has spent the last two years preparing for a private prosecution against Boris Johnson

He said there were question marks over the behaviour of both sides but they concluded that a case could be brought against Boris Johnson.

The arch Brexiteer has repeatedly stood by the £350,000,000 figure used by the Vote Leave campaign during the referendum, which he says represented the UK’s weekly gross contribution to EU budgets.

In January, he argued that the gross figure would reach £438,000,000 by the end of a post-Brexit transition period.

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Mr Ball said misconduct in a public office is a common law offence which has a maximum of life in prison.



His team will now file paperwork at Westminster Magistrates’ Court before January 28.

It is understood magistrates would then have to determine whether to allow the case to go ahead.

Metro.co.uk has contacted Mr Johnson for comment.