The more she’s personally attacked, the more empowered Gina Miller actually feels

The more that right wing media tries to demean her, the more empowered Gina Miller insists she feels. The businesswoman, who came to national prominence in 2016 when she took the British Government to the Supreme Court over its intention to implement Brexit without Parliamentary approval, was speaking last night with the journalist Ruth Wishart, in a sold-out event at the Book Festival

“Every word is deliberate, every adjective is deliberate, to try and paint me in a particular way because they think that’s the way to dent my confidence,” she said. “I don’t think they actually understand that they have so got me wrong, because the more they do it, the more empowered I feel. I’m a great Bruce Lee fan and he said that what you do is absorb the energy [of an attack] and redirect it. That’s what I do; the more they give me that negative energy, it turns into positive energy for me. The more they criticise me and not what I’m saying, or doing, the more I think: ‘You can’t actually find any fault in my argument. Thank you very much, you’ve just confirmed my argument for me.’”

Nevertheless, the vitriol directed to her during the court case did shock her. “I didn’t know that that was the country I lived in. I knew there’d be a backlash; I’ve been a campaigner for 20 years; I’m used to backlashes, I’m used to people not liking me. In fact, I’m very good at getting people not to like me! But I’ve not given up fighting, and I have no intention of doing so. My husband knows I’m not going to; I’m just not that sort of person.

“Where we’re ultimately going is so dangerous, that I would never stop. I cannot sit back; as my husband says, I’m a mental and physical fidget; I just cannot sit by and watch people hurting or things being done to others that they don’t deserve. I will never stop, regardless.”

Having forced the Government to accept the need for Parliamentary scrutiny, Miller isn’t at all happy with the result. “Once we won, I thought that finally we would have the debate in Parliament that hadn’t happened before the Referendum,” she explained. “I had no idea that Mrs May would simply pass a simple Act to trigger Article 50, and I couldn’t – and still can’t understand – why the MPs didn’t have a proper debate. And – as a former member of the Labour Party – I will say that for the Official Opposition to not have stood up and held the Government to account – saying ‘Where are your plans? Where are your studies? Where are your assessments?’ – is just shameful and unforgivable.

“We are living in very dangerous times,” she added. “The things that keep society stable, the foundations, are built on values and principals, and the way we connect with and respect each other. But those foundations have been neglected, so that ground we walk on is now rocking quite violently from left to right. We have to look to the foundations. We have to look at bringing society back together, and I’m extremely worried that those who would exploit the divisions and the cracks in those foundations, do so in a very systematic, ideological way—using Brexit as an almost cultish religion where people define themselves by how they voted.”

On more than one occasion, Miller insisted that we must move on from the 2016 Referendum. “I don’t think we can paint this as a matter of Remain or Leave any more,” she said. “This is actually about our country. This is about the future, and the future will only work if we come together, and I think we have to be mindful not to blame others, but to talk about us moving together.”