Gina Miller, the investment manager turned political activist, and the woman who initiated two successful legal challenges against the Government’s Brexit policies, is launching her own political party: The True and Fair Party.
The launch is taking place at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London, with members of the press lobby attending.
Miller said of her launch:
“There is an urgent need to modernise the UK’s political system – so that the concerns of ordinary people are heard and heeded, and trust is restored. The True & Fair Party will advocate for vital changes to the practice and machinery of government and I look forward to laying out the first part of that vision.”
Miller shot to national attention shortly after the Brexit vote for her legal campaign to prevent the triggering of Article 50 without an Act of Parliament. She instructed City of London law firm Mishcon de Reya, with the High Court judgement in Miller v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union ruling that Parliament had to legislate before the Government could invoke Article 50.
She campaigned against Brexit in the subsequent 2017 general election, calling for tactical voting, and stating that she would vote for the Liberal Democrats; she had previously supported Labour. She later launched a legal challenge against the confidence and supply agreement between Theresa May’s Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland after Theresa May lost her majority in Parliament.
It was in 2019 however, that Miller launched her most significant legal challenge. Miller, along with others, sought to challenge Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament as unlawful. After the High Court ruled it was lawful, the challenge rose to the Supreme Court, where they ruled that the Government’s actions had been unlawful. Parliament were forced to return.
Since the Court challenge, Miller has continued campaigning, often working closely with the Liberal Democrats, however, she has officially been an independent until the launch of the True and Fair Party.
Her party will bear the same name as a campaign she launched in 2012 which aimed to “limit the possibility of future mis-selling or financial scandals through greater transparency.” The campaign was set up in response to financial scandals in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis; her party is being launched at a time of national ‘party’ scandals emerging from Boris Johnson’s government in Number 10.
In her launch, Miller spoke of the need to pursue electoral reform, and highlighted that polling conducted by the True and Fair Party found that 66% of voters would be willing to vote for a new party.
