Gina Miller

Gina Nadira Miller (' Singh'; born 19 April 1965) is a Guyanese-British business owner and activist who initiated the 2016 R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union'' court case against the British government over its authority to implement Brexit without approval from Parliament.

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.

She became a marketing consultant in 2006.

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 has described as "flagrant mis-selling within the asset management market".

She set up Miller Philanthropy (rebranded to the True and Fair Foundation) in 2009 (which closed in 2019 ), and established MoneyShe.com in 2014, as a female-focused investment brand.

She has married three times, and has three children.

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 aimed 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.

She founded the True and Fair Campaign in 2012, calling for an end to financial misconduct in the investment and pension industries.

Miller was born Gina Nadira Singh in British Guiana to Savitri and Doodnauth Singh, who later became the Attorney General of Guyana.

She is of Hindu Indo-Guyanese descent.

She grew up in the newly independent Guyana, and was sent to England by her parents at the age of 10 to be educated at an independent boarding school, Moira House in Eastbourne.

When she was 14, Guyana introduced strict currency controls that prevented their parents from continuing to send funds for Gina and her brother, so she took a summer job as a chambermaid in an Eastbourne hotel.

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 has written that she was brutally attacked while at law school, that some of her attackers were fellow students, and that the attack caused her to give up her degree course.

She stated "Well, I was attacked because I was not behaving like I was supposed to be behaving.... I was being too western."

The attackers were Asian, and they had mistaken her for being Indian.

She gained a degree in marketing, and an MSc in human resource management at the University of East London.

In January 2012, Miller 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".

On 27 September 2021, she launched a political party, the True and Fair Party.

In a statement she said her new party, "champions greater transparency, accountability, competency than existing political parties provide".

The True and Fair Foundation was issued with formal regulatory advice in 2016 and in March 2019 the Charity Commission said it was "not clear" if the charity had complied.

In June 2016, subsequent to the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Miller privately engaged the City of London 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 judgement, I hope – when it's read by the Government and they contemplate the full judgement – 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".

Miller stated in various interviews that she was only pressing on with the legal action as a matter of democracy and parliamentary supremacy.

Others have suggested that she simply wanted to prevent Brexit via whatever means available.

In 2017, she received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of East London, 30 years from when she had attended as a student.

In October 2017, Miller was named by Powerlist as the "UK's most influential black person" which recognises those of African and African Caribbean heritage.

Those nominated were chosen by an independent panel with members including former High Court judge Dame Linda Dobbs and former Apprentice winner Tim Campbell.

They rated nominees on their "ability to change lives and alter events".

She was also named number 26 on the list of most influential British Asians by GG2 Power List.

In September 2019, she successfully challenged the government's prorogation of Parliament, formally supported in the legal case by the former prime minister Sir John Major and the shadow attorney general, Shami Chakrabarti.

The Foundation was a registered charity under English law and was removed from the register in July 2019.

The True and Fair Foundation closed in 2019 with trustees saying the charity had stopped operating in the Autumn of 2018.

It had come under regulatory scrutiny in its latter years.