Anti-Brexit campaigner urges labour and Lib Dems to give her clear run in the next general election

By staff reporter – London, (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The anti-Brexit campaigner, Gina Miller, has reportedly issued an appeal to the leaders of the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats, Sir Keir Starmer and Sir Ed Davey to not field candidates against her at the general election so she can unseat a leading conservative politician.

 

Ms Miller is planning to fight the constituency of Epsom and Ewell, as a candidate for the True and Fair Party [(TFP), which he founded in 2021 and leads.

 

Epsom and Ewell is the seat of former Transport Secretaryand Leader of the House Chris Grayling. He has represented the safe Conservative constituency since 2001 and in 2019 was returned with a majority of nearly 18,000.

 

The announcement of her prospective candidacy for Epsom and Ewell, last month, sparked warnings from labour and Liberal Democrat activists that she would split the anti-Tory vote, increasing the chances of the Conservatives holding on to the seat.

 

But in a letter which was seen by the Independent newspaper, Ms Miller Has reportedly told Sir Keir and Sir Ed that the true and fair party, which plans to field as many as 30 candidates, has deliberately selected seats where neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats stand a realistic chance of success at the next general election.

 

According to the independent the letter says, “Although we are politically distinct from labour and the Liberal Democrats, we are not looking to split the vote in conservative held seats that your parties can realistically win.

 

“Rather, are independently minded candidates will stand in constituencies where labour and the Liberal Democrats stand little to no chance of winning, offering voters a fresh alternative to conservatives.”

 

She goes on to attack Mr grayling’s “shocking record”, claiming he is the “The Walking, talking epitome me all of this uncaring failed conservative administration.”

 

Despite the heartfelt plea from Ms Miller it is highly unlikely that either Labour or the Liberal Democrats will stand down candidates for another party which is trying to pursue a “decapitation strategy”, especially given the current state of the polls and recent by election victories.

 

One conservative MP we spoke to, told parliamentnews.co.uk, that Ms Miller had “a record of failure”, he said, going on to say that she had repeatedly tried to frustrate the will of the British people over Brexit and dismissed the “so-called party”that she founded as “merely a vanity exercise aimed at massaging her own ego”.

 

A True and Fair Party spokesperson said: “Labour and the LibDems have had six chances over 21 years to unseat Mr Grayling and never come even close.  Our research shows 64% of the people of Epsom and Ewell do not feel represented by Mr Grayling and are looking for a new alterative.  This is what Gina Miller and True & Fair are offering.  Robust reforms to strengthen our constitution and political checks and balances, and a vision for Epsom and Ewell.”

 

“We have not yet received any response as we sent the letter yesterday.”

 

“We are looking at 20 – 30 seats.  On the 24th October, we launched our first 9 candidates, and plan to announce around 5 – 7 in February.”

 

Ms Miller is a Guyanese-British business owner and activistwho rose to prominence following a 2016 court case against the British government over its authority to implement Brexit without the explicit approval of parliament. In September 2019 she successfully challenged the government’s prorogation of Parliament a case that enjoyed significant cross-party support including from the former conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major and the former shadow Attorney General Baroness Shami Chakrabarti.

 

As a result of these campaigns miss Miller has injured significant abuse and even death threats. It was reported but in the two days following the judge’s decision in the 2016 Court Case there were more than 79,000 tweets mentioning her account, with a significant proportion of these being hostile using words such as “traitor” and attacking her as a foreigner.

 

However, despite her legal successes, her previous interventions into the world of politics have been less successful. her crowdfunding campaign to back candidates opposed to a hard Brexit in 2017 has been dismissed as ineffective Anne had little discernible impact on the outcome of that vote.

 

She also helped to launch the best for Britain campaign, but later dismissed the organisation describing it as both “a room full of white males deciding what is going to happen to the country” and “undemocratic”.

 

In June 2018 she left the “People’s March for a People’s Vote”on the Brexit deal alongside other leading Remainers such as Liberal Democrats Sir Vince Cable, the green party’s Caroline Lucas and the former Conservative MP Anna Soubry.

 

We have asked Mr Grayling, Labour and the Liberal Democrats for comment and will add these into this story when they are received.

ENDS