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01 August 2019 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7851 / Categories: Features , Public , Constitutional law , Brexit
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Electioneering & misconduct in public office

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Nicholas Dobson reflects on how & why the recent private prosecution against Boris Johnson failed
  • The district judge erred in issuing a summons against Boris Johnson for misconduct in public office for campaigning statements made before the June 2016 EU Referendum.

Elections invariably invoke strong passions as well as a rather creative approach to electioneering. So when a defeated challenger once accused former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza of ballot-rigging he was told that ‘You won the elections, but I won the count’.

In the UK passions certainly ran high before the EU referendum on 23 June 2016. Boris Johnson’s controversial ‘Vote Leave’ bus advert: ‘We send the EU £350m a week, let’s fund our NHS instead’, attracted widespread and impassioned outrage, particularly among Remain advocates. On the other side, the government leaflet circulated at public expense to every UK household warned that: ‘If the UK voted to leave the EU, the resulting economic shock would put pressure on the value of the pound, which would risk higher prices

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