Brexit news: Rees-Mogg rages over move to put Boris Johnson on trial for 'lying and misleading', as rival launches expletive-laden attack
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Boris Johnson must appear in court to face allegations of lying to the British public during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, a judge has said.
The Conservative leadership frontrunner was summonsed after a campaigner brought a private prosecution over claims that EU membership cost the UK £350m a week.
The frontrunner in the Tory leadership race has been accused of misconduct in public office after making the claim during the campaign, following a private prosecution by campaigner Marcus Ball.
Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said the decision was a “troubling” abuse of process.
He told the Press Association: “It is trying to use the courts to achieve a political end which, I think, is neither right or proper. This is involving the courts in something that is not their area.
“We need courts and politicians to respect each other, and it is an abuse of process, and a troubling one. It has been brought by people who are resentful of the referendum result.”
And Conservative former cabinet minister and barrister David Mellor said the ruling was a “deplorable absurdity”, and that courts should not adjudicate on what politicians do during election campaigns.
“I imagine there will be no shortage of senior judges who will feel acutely embarrassed about this,” he told the Press Association.
“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.
“This is a bad day for British justice. But probably, contrary to the wishes of those who have crowdfunded this nonsense, a big boost to Boris. Is that what they really intended? Nutty, nutty, nutty.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who is also vying for the top job, said: “However people voted in the referendum, we shouldn’t have courts judging on political debates.
“Let’s have robust debate to test arguments – and keep courts out of politics.”
It came after the EU slapped down Tory leadership hopefuls aiming to alter the Brexit deal, with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker warning the bloc was “crystal clear” that “there will be no re-negotiation”.
Follow our coverage of how the day unfolded
Welcome to our live coverage of Brexit and UK politics on Wednesday.
Here is our main story from overnight.
Contenders to replace Theresa May as prime minister have been dealt a double blow to their hopes of persuading voters that they can deliver a better Brexit, writes Andrew Woodcock.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker flatly rejected any renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement struck with Ms May last November.
And House of Commons speaker John Bercow set up a constitutional clash with potential future prime ministers like Boris Johnson by insisting that MPs will have an opportunity to block a no-deal Brexit.
First thing this morning, Dominic Raab tweeted that he had launched - and fellow candidates had endorsed - a "clean campaign pledge".
He and others promised not to "speak ill of my fellow Conservatives" as a full football team's-worth of leadership hopefuls battled for supremacy.
"I will debate my colleagues rigorously on policy but my team and I will not engage in personality attacks on others," they pledged.
It follows three years of backstabbing, acrimony and internal Conservative Party strife since the Brexit referendum.
Just yesterday Matt Hancock, who has signed Mr Raab's pledge, lashed out at Boris Johnson over his reported "f**k business" remarks.
Last year Mr Johnson reportedly responded to firms' fears of a hard Brexit by saying: "F**k business."
Mr Hancock told the Financial Times on Tuesday: "To the people who say ‘f**k business’, I say ‘f**k, f**k business’."
A couple more stories here to get you up to speed...
Conservative Party leadership candidates will go head-to-head in a string of TV debates, it has been announced.
The BBC has revealed plans for a debate to take place in mid-June, which will be moderated by the journalist Emily Maitlis.
The final two candidates will also be invited to take part in a special edition of Question Time, where they will be asked questions by an audience.
...and...
James Cleverly has become the eleventh Conservative MP to enter the party’s crowded leadership contest, writes Tom Barnes.
The Braintree MP, a junior Brexit minister who previously served as deputy chairman of the party, said the Tories needed a leader who “truly believes in the opportunity Brexit presents”.
In a letter to his constituents in the Braintree and Witham Times, Mr Cleverly said: “Both the country, and my party, are beset with division.
For an indication of how Mr Raab's pledges have gone down, here's talkRADIO's political editor...
James Cleverly, the latest Tory to throw his hat in the ring for the leadership, has said he does not want a no-deal Brexit.
Asked if he supported that outcome by John Humphrys on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "Well, my job in government is to make sure we can leave with no deal. That is still one of the options, one of the ultimate destinations of this process. It is not my preferred destination."
Pressed on whether no deal would be "massively damaging" for the UK, he said: "No, it wouldn't be. What it would be is an added level of uncertainty and difficulty at a time when we could well do without that. We absolutely can deliver a Brexit with no deal."
While he said the UK should not actively pursue no deal, Mr Cleverly agreed with Mr Humphrys' suggestion that he was "relatively sanguine" about the prospect.
Last year the IMF estimated that no-deal Brexit would cost households up to £6,000 in the long term, and warned of recession. And parts of the UK could see a 10.5-per-cent drop in productivity by 2034 compared to remaining in the EU, the CBI said in January.
Mr Cleverly, who campaigned for Brexit, added: "Until we have delivered Brexit we will not have the legitimacy to talk about the other issues that we absolutely have to talk about."
Leadership candidate Rory Stewart has been on a bit of a tour of the country, hoping to engage directly with voters on Brexit.
Yesterday he was in Kew Gardens, in southwest London, and filmed a video advertising his availability for open-air policy debates.
But one eagle-eyed viewer spotted something amiss, prompting him to confess that all was not as it seemed.
"Yes," replied the prisons minister.
"Brexit has won the day" was an inevitable narrative after Sunday evening's European election results. There is only one problem with this analysis: it is complete nonsense. A little under one-third of the vote going to Nigel Farage is not an "overwhelming victory" any more than the process of leaving the EU has proved "the easiest in human history", writes Vince Cable in our Voices opinion section.
In fact, the Brexit Party increased only very slightly the vote that Ukip, the leader's former party, achieved five years ago. The Remain parties, however, were indeed the beneficiaries of a substantial boost: my own party scored its best result in a national election for a decade, with 3.4 million votes.
Taken together, the clear Remain vote – for the Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Change UK, the Scottish and Welsh Nationalist parties, Sinn Fein and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland – totalled 6.8 million, whereas the hard Brexit vote – for Nigel Farage and Ukip – was only 5.8m. Factoring in the likely allegiances of Conservative (80 per cent Leave) and Labour (60 per cent Remain) voters still leaves Remain well ahead.
Despite all this, I am still berated regularly by those who say calling for a People’s Vote is a disgraceful "betrayal of the will of the people".
A string of former Labour ministers have dared Jeremy Corbyn to expel them from the party.
It follows the ousting of Alastair Campbell, who admitted he had breached party ruled by voting for the Liberal Democrats in the European parliament elections.
Observers have criticised the move by comparing the former spin doctor's swift expulsion to the pace at which Labour has previously addressed antisemitism in its ranks.
Charles Clarke, the former home secretary, led the revolt by announcing he had also voted Lib Dem as a Brexit protest, writes Rob Merrick.
He was swiftly followed by Bob Ainsworth and Fiona Mactaggart, who invoked the famous slave revolt against the Romans by saying it was “time for all of us to declare ‘I am Spartacus’”.
The tactic piled pressure on Mr Corbyn to show similar ruthlessness, but at the risk of fuelling the anger of huge numbers of members who deserted the party to demand a Final Say referendum.
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