Wembley parties fire off parting salvoes

Before that, Hugh Tomlinson, counsel for CBUK, had used the penultimate day of the trial to depict Multiplex as a overly aggressive contractor whose conduct had "crossed the line into unlawfulness".

Mr Justice Jackson is expected to return a verdict on the £50m dispute on 5 and 6 June.

Roger Stewart, counsel for Multiplex denied allegations that his client had acted dishonestly in refusing to honour a valuation of £32.66m for CBUK's work to 15 February 2004.

CBUK claims the figure had been "final and binding" and that Multiplex later went back on the agreement in an attempt to use financial pressure to force it off the site.

Multiplex claims the figure was only agreed for "cash flow", and was always subject to clawback.

Stewart said Matt Stagg, Multiplex's construction director, had always been clear that the figure of £32.66m was subject to revision in the event of a disaster. He said Stagg had made this clear by refusing to include the figure in the supplemental agreement, which was drawn up as a binding revision to the original contract to resolve disputes.

Stewart added: "That's completely incompatible with the type of trickery being alleged by CBUK."

Stewart said CBUK's claim for the money could be best characterised as: "Will you pay me £5? No. Will you write down that you agreed to pay me £5? No. Well, we've agreed on the figure anyway."

It will be a stadium to be proud of

David Beckham

Tomlinson said the evidence heard in court had shown that the parties were trying to agree a final figure. He said that the "gaping hole at the heart of Multiplex's case" was that it offered no explanation of how it had moved from a position where it intended to agree a final figure to one that was for "cash flow" only.

Tomlinson dismissed Stagg's evidence as "unsatisfactory" and "inconsistent".

He added that Multiplex's "Armageddon plan" to bankrupt CBUK was "more than a mere contingency plan" and denied that CBUK had carried out "Project Trafalgar" to leave the project on the basis that Multiplex had repudiated the contract.

He added that Multiplex had tried to create an impression that CBUK were "whingeing poms" who had wanted to get out of a loss-making contract.

Meanwhile, the England squad made its first visit to Wembley before heading off to Germany for the World Cup.

David Beckham sought to play down the impact of delays on the stadium. He said: "I can't see it taking that much longer. When it's finished it'll be a stadium to be proud of."