[Daily Mail] – Glamourous, feisty and impeccably well-connected, South American-born former model Gina Miller humiliated Theresa May and derailed British democracy because Brexit made her feel ‘physically sick’.
Mrs Miller, 51, lives in London with her financier husband Alan, nicknamed ‘Mr Hedge Fund’ because he made £30 million after starting one of the City’s first in 1997. The couple run an investment firm with a reported £100million in its portfolios – although Mr Miller did not appear to be at her side today.
Nicknamed ‘Mrs Wham Glam’ by friends, she has now been branded ‘woman of the century’ by Remainers who cheered her on the steps of the High Court today. And risking more fury Mrs Miller suggested Brexit supporters including Nigel Farage, who called the ruling a ‘betrayal’, should have joined the celebrations.
She said afterwards: ‘I’m quite used to getting ridiculous abuse and I think Mr Farage should be more responsible in his messages because he himself, presumably, believes in the sovereignty of Parliament because he spouted about it throughout the referendum.
‘So I would say to him: You should celebrate the win today because the ruling is one that protects the sovereignty of Parliament’. The mother-of-three, who was born in Guyana but grew up in Britain, became a successful City investment manager and also set up the No.1 Ladies’ Investment Club for women in business.
And friends say she is sharp-witted and acid-tongued, with a reputation for winning every argument. Describing herself as a ‘natural fighter, she has rattled cages in the City and accused the charity sector of widespread inefficiencies.
But this year Mrs Miller, a Labour supporter, put the Government’s Brexit plans in her sights because she was ‘absolutely stunned’ by the referendum result. Mrs Miller, who voted Remain, brought the case with the help of a Portuguese hairdresser called Deir Santos because the Brexit vote on June 23 made her feel ‘physically sick’.
Their high-powered team of lawyers to London’s High Court, led by top lawyer Lord Pannick QC and a team up to 11 more barristers, has now embarrassed Theresa May. After today’s verdict the Prime Minister must now face the Commons and convince MPs she should be able to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to start the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Outside the Royal Courts of Justice today Mrs Miller laughed uproariously as she was cheered and clapped by supporters waving EU flags after her win. Online her fans called her a ‘national hero’ and ‘the woman of the century’.
She said: ‘You can’t have a Government casually throwing away people’s rights, that why we turned to the courts. It is about process not politics’. David Greene, senior partner of law firm Edwin Coe, who acted for Mr Santos, said: ‘This is a victory not just for the brave individuals that brought this claim but, more importantly, for Parliamentary democracy and the rule of law.’
Former Liberal Democrat leader Ming Campbell said the ruling was a ‘slap in the face’ for Mrs May. The 51-year-old mother-of-three has received death threats for her campaign.
Mrs Miller, who describes herself as a ‘born fighter’ and an ‘adrenaline junkie’, has told how she felt sick when she heard the Brexit result. She said earlier this year: ‘I felt physically sick because I thought: I don’t think people know the ramifications of this, of what’s happened, and I felt really sorry that people had been tricked and fooled.’
She has also said: ‘We must not underestimate or forget the anger in Europe about our vote…. they’re very angry that we’ve had this relationship yet we still threaten the union.’ The daughter of the former Attorney General of Guyana, previously British Guiana, Mrs Miller was sent to a private girls’ school in Britain when she was 10.
At the prestigious Roedean School in Brighton she ran away because she ‘experienced racism for the first time’ and ‘was bullied badly’.
She said parents were unable to send her money so she worked as a chambermaid. “Now on Facebook, they’re saying: ‘B****, go back to where you belong scrubbing floors’, which I thought was quite funny because actually, I was very good at that.’ She went on to study law at university and turned to modelling and is said to have been the inspiration behind playwright Dennis Potter’s racy BBC drama Blackeyes, which starred Gina Bellman as a fashion model.
Married for the first time at 20, she had disabled daugher Lucy-Ann, who ‘was deprived of oxygen at birth’. She told The Times: ‘She’s 28 now and has the mental age of a six-year-old’ and still lives with her. She said: ‘That’s why when people make assumptions about me, I think, “You don’t know me at all”.’
Her second marriage was to controversial financier Jon Maguire, whose investment fund later lost around £120million. She walked away from that marriage after meeting Mr Miller in 2002 and the pair now run their own investment firm, a philanthropic foundation and campaign against dishonest charges in the financial industry.
In her career she worked for BMW in the UK, before moving into financial services for Legal & General and Scottish Widows. In 2002, the former model moved to investment firm New Star, where she met her multi-millionaire husband Alan, 52, and the pair later left the firm to have children and go travelling.
Mr Miller was involved in an acrimonious divorce from his ex-wife, Melissa. His ex was earning £85,000-a-year at a pharmaceutical company but gave up work after they were married.
The childless marriage broke down after less than three years around the time he met Gina. Melissa was awarded £5million of his £30million fortune, which he challenged all the way to the House of Lords and lost.
During the battle, Mr Miller’s lawyer claimed it would be cheaper for him to run over his ex-wife than pay the settlement. Gina married her third husband in a register office and at 41 became pregnant.
When son Luca was nine months she became pregnant again at 43 and had daughter Lana. Mr Miller and his new wife Gina had reached Panama on their travels by 2008, but returned to the UK to ‘put their house in order’ as the financial crisis hit.
In the wake of the crisis, the couple set up SCM Private, which now manages hundreds of millions in funds. They have two young children and live in a £7million townhouse in Chelsea, West London. Mrs Miller has an older daughter from her first marriage. On an online CV, Mrs Miller said: ‘People say I am a passionate person with a feisty tone of voice. This is because I love what I do, and do what I believe is right.
‘I am not afraid to speak out when I confront intellectually or morally bankrupt arguments, and have an independent mind-set.’ Mrs Miller has recently spent much of her time working for her True and Fair Foundation, which she founded in 2009.
The foundation advises charities on how to take what she calls ‘a more strategic business-like approach’ to their work. Earlier this year, she criticised Judy Murray after it emerged just £20 of a £60-a-head charity event hosted by the tennis star’s mother was going to good causes.
The Millers also led the so-called ‘True and Fair Campaign’, which called for more transparency in the City of London. She has become the public face of the Brexit legal challenge, although the case has been brought on behalf of her and a London hairdresser, Deir dos Santos, described by his lawyer as ‘just an ordinary guy’.
It also includes the so-called ‘People’s Challenge’, which claims the backing of thousands of supporters, and a group of Britons living in France who are expected to put forward their own legal arguments under the name Fair Deal for Expats.
