Gina Miller Interview: We, the People, are sick and tired of Brexit

Gina Miller is a defender of parliamentary sovereignty, a champion of democracy, a campaigner, an activist, a writer, a businesswomen – and most recently, the founder of www.RemainUnited.org, a website which provides guidance to Remainers on how to vote tactically in the upcoming European Parliament elections.

The aim of Remain United is, Gina Miller told me, to “turbo-boost remain voter turnout” and encourage “tactical voting” to reduce the predicted “Brexit Party MEP seat wins”. Gina defended the methods used to formulate the tactical voting guide by describing them as “robust” and reliant on “machine learning”. More importantly, the guide has been produced “without fear, favour or bias”, Gina Miller added.

The reason for founding Remain United is also based on the objective to defeat a “common enemy” which Gina Miller regards as an extreme right wing ideology” that denies “climate change, equality, tolerance and rights”.

During the interview I also questioned her about The Brexit Party and the implications their success would entail and what it would mean for the Remain movement. She also spoke fondly of the newly founded Change UK party, while emphasising the need for collaboration and “common cause alliances”.

Additionally, Gina Miller expressed the need for the United Kingdom to finally adopt a codified constitution because “the Brexit parliamentary process illustrates that our system is being stress-tested in a manner that has not occurred since the times of Henry VIII”.

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Muhammed: Your www.RemainUnited.org website illustrates that the Liberal Democrats are the best party Remainers in England should support. However, what would you like to say to those voters who are still uneasy about supporting the Lib Dems because of their coalition years?

Gina Miller: This is a time to focus on our collective aim, which is to reduce the number of Farage’s band of Brexit Party MEPs taking their seats and destroying the EU from within.  It is not about domestic politics, but the face that our country presents to Europe. Jacob Rees-Mogg has already said that the pro-Brexit MEPs that get elected should be “as difficult as possible” with the EU on a range of issues, including the long-term budget if Brexit is delayed for an extended period.  

So my view is that we all have to put party politics aside if we are to defeat the common enemy – and that’s not just these childish antics, but also extreme right wing ideology, which denies, among other things, climate change, equality, tolerance and rights. The Brexit Party will benefit if the Remain vote is divided up between the pro-European parties due to the mathematical peculiarities of the d’Hondt proportional representative system. 

The data alone has determined how best to vote tactically in each area and without fear, favour or bias. So far as England is concerned, it has come out that the Lib Dems are the party to vote for. When I commissioned this research and analysis, I knew we needed as robust a method as possible.  The method that has been used is called “machine learning” and it uses advanced statistical techniques of regression, and is a key part of algorithms used for internet search and language translations tools. It is a significant improvement on more classic polling and analysis methods.

I might add it was used in  the 2017 General elections and was the only model that correctly predicted the number of seats the Conservatives would win. These are reputable companies that worked on this – Electoral Calculus and ComRes – and they guard their reputations jealously.

Muhammed: Imagine if, in spite of your efforts, The Brexit Party succeeds in “storming the European elections”– would it imply that people want a hard-Brexit?

Gina Miller: With just two weeks to go, most polls are predicting a majority of seats for The Brexit Party so it is not just about imagining.  Partly because the Conservative and Labour parties are not actively or aggressively campaigning, there is no political remain alliance, and the remain campaign groups are still divided.  So the slick, well-funded Brexit Party and Mr Farage’s machinery are getting media oxygen, meeting little resistance and energising their supporters and voters. 

On our side, we have to do the same, especially in terms of concerted efforts to turbo-boost remain voter turnout, tactical voting to reduce the predicted Brexit Party MEP seat wins and accept that taken together the percentage that vote for all remain parties is greater than for all Brexit parties.  This percentage at present is 57% remain versus 43% leave, according to our research.  I have to try my best with the time and resources I have and that is what I intend to do.  As the saying goes – ‘don’t get angry, get even’ – and I ask all the young people who read your excellent website to do their bit, too, and spread the word.  

Muhammed: And, could the success of Brexit-supporting parties – including the Conservatives and Labour – also mean the end of the Remain movement?

Gina Miller: On the contrary, I would say the support we are seeing falling away from both the Labour and the Tories – all too obvious in the local election results – shows supporting Brexit is threatening their existence. We, the People, are sick and tired of Brexit. We want the politicians who are paid for with our hard-earned taxes to get back to looking after our country, our services and our people.  No one – absolutely no one – voted for this unfolding nightmare. As it says on our website www.remainunited.org, we need to Remain united – as a country, as a people, as a union.

Muhammed: In a recent article in The Guardian, you claimed that the Remain camp is “divided between up to five parties” – do you therefore think the emergence of Change UK is counterproductive?

Gina Miller: When Change UK began, I wrote a piece for The Guardian wishing them well and saying how much I hoped the new party would at last give us real opposition to Brexit, austerity and the mistrust in politics.  Of course, I still support its objectives, but I believe the MPs involved have to accept that we face a common enemy in Mr Farage and the ideology he represents, so there does need to be collaboration and commons cause alliances.  I am trying to form coalitions for common sense and I wish they would, too.

Muhammed: With Brexit in deadlock, don’t you think Remainers should compromise and support Theresa May’s deal to avoid a hard-Brexit, solve this impasse and focus on ‘real issues’?

Gina Miller: MPs should not be bullied into thinking Mrs May’s Deal is much better than no-deal if we believe in preserving our sovereignty and safeguarding people’s everyday rights and quality of lives. Look, for instance, at how much the cost of the weekly food shop has already gone up. Mrs May’s Brexit deal and no-deal will not allow MPs to focus on ‘real issues’ as they will just be the end of the easy part of the process.  The difficult part, negotiating the future relationship, will take up MPs bandwidth for as much as seven to ten years.  Even sensible Brexiteers acknowledge this.

A huge part of the problem lies in the aspirational “wish-list” in the non-legally binding Political Declaration – a mere 26-pages and subject to a “best endeavours” clause and a concession that the relationship “might evolve over time”.

The 599-page draft Withdrawal Agreement (WA) makes no mention of “frictionless trade” at all, there is no right to passporting of services or mutual recognition of no professional qualifications. Access to some regulatory frameworks – such as medicines, energy, chemicals – will be by “invitation only”. Further, the UK will have to pay access fees for any privileges granted or sectors where the UK may want to cherry-pick.

Professional advisors or consultants – like architects, accountants or lawyers –  will have to re-qualify and comply with at least 31 different and conflicting sets of national rules and regulations if they want to provide a pan European service.

So the WA does not take back control of our money or laws, create certainty for businesses, investment or growth or creating new opportunities for the next generation.

And as a so-called “third state” outside the EU club, we will be negotiating, both with the EU and the wider world, from a weak position that does not guarantee the UK any of the benefits we have enjoyed – but perhaps taken for granted – over the last 45 years.

Muhammed: Rewinding to 2017 when you successfully defended parliamentary sovereignty through a Supreme Court case. In the aftermath of that case, do you believe that the UK should adopt a codified constitution?

Gina Miller: The UK is only one of three modern countries that doesn’t have a written or codified constitution, largely because we have managed to remain free of revolutionary fervour – unlike America and Europe in the 19^th century. 

My case was about protecting parliamentary sovereignty and  ensuring no Prime Minister could put him or herself about the law. The Brexit parliamentary process illustrates that our system is being stress-tested in a manner that has not occurred since the times of Henry VIII.  With all that is now happening – not least the rise of populism and the threat to our rights – I do think we need to not just think about codifying at least part of our constitution, but to get on and do it.   

Muhammed: To finish on a lighter note, what advice would you like to give to your fellow anti-Brexit campaigners and activists, especially to the younger ones?

Gina Miller: If we had not all fought, our country would have fallen off the cliff on March 29, so that in itself is an achievement.  As a campaigner and activist for nearly 30 years, I know that the most difficult decision is to take a stand, the rest is merely tenacity.  And in the face of lies, anger and hatred, I’d advise everyone to stay calm and courteous. Take heart from the fact that if abuse is hurled at you, it’s because you are being effective. Otherwise those angry voices wouldn’t be raised.

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Interview conducted by Muhammed Raza Hussain. He is an award-winning writer: the Extra-Mile winner of the News Quest Young Reporter Scheme 2014 and received a ‘Talent for Writing’ certificate by Young Writers. Twitter @MuhammedRaza786 | Instagram:  @M.Raza.H_