She is the face of the Brexit legal battle. Gina Miller is the lead claimant in the legal action against the British Prime Minister, arguing that individual members of the Cabinet have no legal power to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to leave the European Union without getting the approval of the Parliament and MPs. In short, Parliament has to be consulted before triggering Article 50.
Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty is nothing but starting the formal process of the UK leaving the EU.
Gina Miller was born in Guyana but grew up in Britain. Her father, Doodnauth Singh, was Guyana's attorney-general. She has a brother named Gary, a GP in East London.
In 2009 she co-founded the investment firm SCM Private, now SCM Direct, with her third husband, Alan, a 52-year-old fund manager. They are settled in Chelsea, West London, and are pround parents of two children, aged 9 and 11. She has been married three times, and has three children.
Married for the first time at 20, she had disabled daughter 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. 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 £120 million. She walked away from that marriage after meeting Alan Miller in 2002. Gina Miller said businessman Maguire abused her before their marriage broke up 13 years ago.
Gina Miller was inspired to take on the government after defying her abusive anti-EU ex-husband. She said she was given legal protection after being physically attacked by Jon Maguire, who stood on an anti-Brussels platform at the 2010 General Election.
She attended Moira House Girls' School, in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and then went to university in London. She is reported to have previously been a model and a chambermaid, but is best known for having campaigned for transparency in investment and pension funds.
Gina Miller is also the founder and chairman of Miller Philanthropy, which she launched with Alan. The duo also launched the True and Fair Campaign, aimed at cutting charges on ISAs and wiping out “dishonesty” in the financial services industry. She and her husband have also been major contributors to the Margaret Thatcher infirmary at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
On November 3, she succeeded in the first stage of her attempt to overturn PM Theresa May's decision in judicial preview proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Gina Miller launched the Brexit legal case along with London-based Spanish hairdresser Deir Dos Santos and the People's Challenge group, set up by Grahame Pigney and backed by a crowd-funding campaign. They argued the government could not invoke Article 50 without seeking approval from Parliament.
The government has appealed and the case will be considered by the Supreme Court next month.
