Gina Miller

Biography

Born Gina Nadira Singh in British Guiana to Savitri and Doodnauth Singh, who later became Attorney General of Guyana, she grew up in the newly independent Guyana before being sent to England by her parents at the age of 10 to be educated at Moira House Girls School. She studied law at the Polytechnic of East London (now University of East London) but left without completing her finals because her parents wanted her in Guyana. She gained a degree in marketing, and an MSc in human resource management at the University of London.

She owned a property photographic laboratory in 1987, before becoming a marketing and event manager at BMW Fleet Division in 1990. She started a specialist financial services marketing agency in 1992, and launched the Senate investment conference programme in 1996. In 2006 she became a marketing consultant. In February 2009, Miller co-founded the investment firm SCM Private (now SCM Direct) with her husband Alan Miller. She has been a leading campaigner against hidden charges in pensions and investment and what she describes as "flagrant mis-selling within the asset management market". She set up Miller Philanthropy (now rebranded the True and Fair Foundation) in 2009, and established MoneyShe.com in 2014, as a female-focused investment brand.

She is married for the third time, and has three children.

True and Fair Foundation

Miller set up the True and Fair Foundation in 2009, with the stated aim of increasing philanthropy and common good in an era of growing inequality, social fragmentation and small state funding. It aims to encourage those who have been successful to give back to the communities that afforded them their success, lessening the burden of giving for donors and philanthropists who wish to give smarter and in an efficient and transparent manner but may be time poor.

True and Fair Campaign

In January 2012, she set up the True and Fair Campaign, with the stated aim to "limit the possibility of future mis-selling or financial scandals through greater transparency." This initiative attracted the animosity of part of the City, earning her the nickname of "black widow spider". She reported being called "a disgrace [whose] lobbying efforts would bring down the entire City".

Brexit legal challenge

In June 2016, in the aftermath of the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Miller privately engaged the City law firm Mishcon de Reya to challenge the authority of the British Government to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union using prerogative powers, arguing that only Parliament can take away rights that Parliament has granted.

On 3 November 2016, the High Court of Justice ruled that Parliament had to legislate before the Government could invoke Article 50. Miller said outside the High Court: "The judgment, I hope – when it's read by the Government and they contemplate the full judgment – that they will make the wise decision of not appealing but pressing forward and having a proper debate in our sovereign Parliament, our mother of parliaments that we are so admired for all over the world".

The legal challenge met with a "torrent" of abuse from some of those supporting Brexit, including racial abuse and death threats. Miller's solicitor, Mishcon de Reya, was subjected to abuse as a result of its involvement in the case, and Brexit supporters mounted a protest outside the firm's offices. A man, aged 55, was arrested in November 2016 on suspicion of racially aggravated malicious communications over threats to Miller, but was later told he would not be prosecuted. Another man, aged 50, was arrested in January 2017 also in relation to the complaint made in November; Rhodri Philipps was charged on 7 March. At least eight people had been issued with cease and desist notices by the police.

Miller stated why she was pressing on with the legal action in a newspaper article published the day before the Supreme Court appeal hearing opened on 5 December. She was not a committed Europhile, but she did have a legal training, a job in investment management, and "years of campaigning for transparency and accountability". She was concerned that experienced, senior politicians appeared not to know that only Parliament can take away from people rights that Parliament had granted; and were instead proposing to trigger withdrawal from the EU, without parliamentary authority, by using the royal prerogative, which she described as "an ancient self-serving right that Kings and Queens once used to rid themselves of their enemies". It was not the idea of Brexit that filled her with dread but the idea of an unchallenged, unanswerable government taking "us" back to 1610, "and ripping a hole through our democratic structures".

The Government's appeal to the Supreme Court was heard in December 2016. When closing the hearing, the Court President said that the appeal raised important constitutional issues, and the Justices would take time to give full consideration to the many arguments presented to them, orally and in writing, and they would do their best to resolve the case as quickly as possible. When the Supreme Court delivered judgment in January 2017, it upheld the High Court ruling by a majority of 8–3.

After the judgment, Miller claimed that some prominent politicians had behaved "despicably", and were in "la la land" about how Brexit negotiations would proceed.