In a politically sensitive judgment, the Master of the Rolls, Sir John Dyson, ruled in late January that the High Court must investigate the intervention by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, banning a Christian advertisement which was deemed by Stonewall and Transport for London to be ‘anti-gay’.
Boris Johnson personally intervened in the run-up to the Mayoral election in 2012 and banned the adverts which suggested that some people are ex-homosexuals, but didn’t ban the Stonewall adverts instructing people to ‘get over’ the idea that ‘some people are gay’.
Email evidence
An email was submitted as evidence which showed that the Mayor had immediately contacted the Guardian newspaper offices after banning the advert, and was understood by Sir John Dyson as therefore apparently making political capital out of it. The day after, Boris Johnson was due to appear at a hustings event organised by Stonewall. This called into question the lawfulness of his decision. Sir John Dyson proposed that: ‘In the interests of justice a further enquiry be conducted by the court as to whether (i) the decision was instructed by the Mayor and (ii) it was made for an improper purpose’.
In light of the judgment, the Mayor has been requested to make all emails, current and potentially deleted, available to the lawyers of the Core Issues Trust (CIT). As part of the request written by CIT, Mr. Johnson was reminded that as ‘the political credibility of politicians is at an all-time low, your openness, transparency and integrity in helping with pre-court access to these matters will be much appreciated’.
