Popcorn alert: Dominic Cummings is filing a formal complaint to the Bar Standards Board about Jolyon Maugham, the mad Remainer QC who he brands “a disgrace to the bar”. He writes:

It’s been suggested to me that I should put in a formal complaint about the lawyer @JolyonMaugham to the Bar Standards Board. His twitter feed alone is a disgrace to the bar. He has been guilty of at least reckless falsehood. Strikes me this would be a good public service so feel free to send evidence about him to my public email and I’ll send in a formal document with help from some barristers. Public debate is badly undermined when QCs spread bullshit on the internet.

And on this subject, it was noticeable that in the hearing over a judicial review on the Electoral Commission recently all three teams were criticised by the Court: Jolyon’s, the EC’s, and VL’s. The JR won’t effect Brexit at all but it will affect future conduct in elections and the debate about reform. As I wrote in my long piece on the referendum a year ago the rules about our elections are a joke and regulators are in an impossible position (e.g the latest flap over what counts as ‘coordination’). It would be in the public interest if all three teams upgrade their lawyers for the JR in the summer so these arguments are properly made and contribute to serious reform of the whole system. (I have zero role with VL and have not been a director since early 2016 so these decisions have nothing to do with me.) 

NB. I respect @JolyonMaugham’s right to free speech and to express his political views on Twitter. Please only send examples of things that can genuinely and reasonably be seen as misconduct for a barrister such as misleading people or deliberately mistating the law. I have no interest in his politics, just his integrity and professionalism. There will be a very strict test applied by my team about what we say. Just the facts please…

Let’s see if the Board share the view of his fellow silks that Jolyon is “the biggest c*** at the English bar”…

Complaints are also being filed to the Electoral Commission and the Information Commissioner’s Office about the Remain campaign. Guido also understands legal letters are going in to Bindmans, the ‘campaigning’ lawyers who held that parody press conference yesterday, and the three lawyers Clare Montgomery, Helen Mountfield and Ben Silverstone threatening them with action for defamation and libel. The understanding is that the press conference wasn’t legally privileged and they aren’t covered by the barristers’ mutual fund because it was outside of court. The day the lies caught up with the lawyers…