We are thrilled to present an exclusive interview with Gina Miller, a prominent figure in British politics and a tireless advocate for transparency and justice. Known for her groundbreaking legal challenges that shaped the course of Brexit, Miller has become a symbol of civic engagement and the power of standing up for one's beliefs. Miller shares insights on her legal battles, her experiences facing adversity, and her vision for a fairer Britain. As the founder of the True and Fair Campaign and standing for elections in the Epsom and Ewell constituency, Miller offers a unique perspective on the intersection of law, politics, and social justice.
Minority ethnic groups have been known to have the lowest voter turnout. What is your stance on this issue? And how do you think smaller parties can help deal with it?
We're finding that people are looking for something different and don't feel represented by the main parties. There is a real appetite for wanting smaller parties. What are they bringing? Independence. I've always been concerned of the trend of the reducing number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds or minority groups, or women, feeling disenfranchised and so not turning out. You can't be represented if you're not there, not heard, or voting. It's a catch-22. You must vote.
We are all aware of your activism surrounding Brexit. What is your position on the UK's relationship with the European Union post-Brexit, and how will you work to strengthen or redefine this relationship?
The bottom line is we are not trusted because of the way we conducted the departure from the EU and the way it was spun by leading members of our political class and media. There's been a lot of hurt. There's a lot of bad faith between the EU and the UK. So, we must first build back trust. We can't repair any of the damage that's been done without good faith and trust being there. And I think that will start repairing as we get more stability in our politics. Hopefully that happens with the next government.
Once we've got that, then it's about political will, because there are already mechanisms in place that can reduce the inexcusable damage that's happened. Those exist in the Trading Cooperation Agreement signed alongside the withdrawal agreement that Boris Johnson put together. The issue is that the clauses are there, but there is no political will to trigger them.
There are over 200 renegotiation clauses in the TCA, which would almost overnight start us on a path to being more aligned, to make sure that we have more trade, more travel, and much more freedoms for young people. It is also important that we rejoin the data sharing agencies, we are really being left behind because we haven't signed up to the environmental agency, the data agency, the terrorist agency, the criminal justice security, medical research, pharmaceuticals, science. We live in a global world, and we cannot exist on our own.
Thirdly, because of the geopolitical uncertainty in the world, we must work together on defense. No nation state, be it the UK or European Union member states, can have enough funds to take on Russia, or the other threats that are coming around, alone.
What specific policies or legislative changes will you propose to address the climate crisis and promote environmental sustainability if elected, specifically in relation to the ecocide pledge?
There is no excuse for not putting ecocide into law. It is simple.
The Biden-Harris government are saying that if they win the next election, they will put that into law. In the EU, it already has passed into legislation, ecocide has been put into law in March of this year, and member states have two years to bring it on their statute books. France has already put it on its statute books.
That means it would become a criminal offense under the ecocide law that we are proposing for any company to damage the environment. The organisation must prove that it's taking mitigation to ensure that that damage is not going to occur.
For example, the data centers now are getting away with hiding the amount of water and energy they're using, and it's altering our areas. It's making deserts of riverbeds. That should not be happening. There should be a responsibility for those companies to use, to recycle, to reuse, and to mitigate so that there isn't damage.
I think that is where we start, and it is now time. Enough talking, enough meetings. We must bring ecocide into law, make it a crime. Climate change is not something you can handle on a national level. You must do it internationally. The UK is falling behind, and we must urgently catch up on this. Demonstrations are great, but it is now time that our leaders take responsibility and protect the world for future generations.
This includes equal access to green spaces, access to good housing without mould, access to environmental rights and protections as we work. It is time that we acknowledge that environmental protections impact the poorest in society the hardest.
How do you plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and support families struggling with rising prices and inflation? What measures will you take to protect the rights of renters and ensure fair treatment by landlords, including addressing issues like rent hikes and evictions?
The social housing standard is shameful, and the Labour Party, in its first 100 days, must pass the Renter’s Reform Bill. I think it has got cross party support anyway, so it will go through. However, I would also add that there’s some things missing, and the act needs to be much more robust.
It's all very well to say no faulted evictions so, get rid of section 21. But we must also have landlords' registers that will help identify good landlords and bad landlords. People will then know who to look out for. We also must have much more criminal responsibility for landlords.
There needs to be more legislation and rental standards. When you put a property on rent there should be minimum standards. One of the other things I would like to see, which is very common in other countries, is longer assured tenancies. When someone rents a house, it becomes their home, and it is very important for them to be able to put down roots.
Then there's the issue of how rent increases happen without any warning. We must have much more transparency and regulations around to encourage good landlords to be in the marketplace.
Additionally, I'm not a fan of housing associations. We think that housing associations are incentivised by the directors to keep the stock at a certain level. It's time to end housing associations and to put those properties onto the housing market for the poor in society at a 25% discount, which then becomes their deposit, so that they can then put that rent towards owning and paying back a mortgage.
The entire housing market and the rental market needs to be reformed. In terms of buying a property, or encouraging more housing for rental or purchase, there are other things that True and Fair would suggest. Reducing stamp duty for people over 75, encouraging people to downsize or to release equity to look after themselves at an older age. Big properties being released can then be split into multiple dwellings.
In the ethnic minority community, there is a problem with planners. Most planners are white and male. The main political parties talk about building more, but who's going to do this building? Who's going to do the planning? We have a massive shortage in trade and the building industry. We need to have more people from the ethnic minority community being encouraged to go into those professions.
What is your stance on Labour’s suggested Race Equality Law?
I worry about that legislation, because I worry about some of the initiatives that make us other. We should be included. It's about equality.
It's not about how we need equality because we're different. No, we need to be treated the same. It's about fairness.
The more you create and shine a light on people being different, the more you give fuel to those who see us as different, and those who want to target us. I'm 60 now, I grew up in the 70s and 80s in the UK, I can see some of the things going backwards to that time.
We made huge progress because we talked about us being one community. We didn't talk about us being different communities. We must be careful about how we move forward. And we don't fuel the rise of the right, and the rise of racism that we are already seeing.
What are the party’s views on electoral reform? Can you take us through some of the reforms that the party wants to implement?
The True and Fair Party reforms are significant. We think there should be auto enrolment. We would advocate lowering the voting age to 16, but then making it compulsory from 18. We recommend having auto registration from 18, so you don't have to go and do all this paperwork, you're automatically enrolled.
We would advocate the celebration of Election Day and make it a bank holiday. It is important that we celebrate Democracy Day, since democracy has been fought for and people have died to give us the right to vote. That means we will have more awareness because when you have a celebration people tend to have discussions in schools and a curriculum that talks about democracy, about how parliament works, and about our rights. It is very important that we educate our young people.
The former Commonwealth countries are rushing ahead of us on changes to improve a modernised democracy. That's one thing that is very strong and central to the True and Fair Party, is how do we modernise and make our democracy and electoral system fairer and more accountable?
Going with our electoral reform, we also are advocating really significant reforms for MPs and those who go into parliament, more whistleblowing processes and protections, contract of employment for MPs, because believe it or not, there's nothing that an MP signs that says they have to behave a certain way, which is extraordinary. Something as simple as a contract of employment would create massive cultural change overnight. It would improve the governance, transparency and behaviour in parliament overnight.
You say you strive for social cohesion, resilience, safety and prosperity on a community level. How do you strive to achieve this, and will it involve strengthening and listening to the VCSE sector?
I'm a huge advocate of the wellbeing economy. There is a global alliance of over 21 countries facing similar problems of ageing population, health, climate change, and the impact of a digital revolution.
I advocate that we should transition to a wellbeing economy that involves private, public and the charitable sector working together. There was a movement in the UK in 1996 called the Triple Bottom Line where all corporates had to operate with three goals, which are people, profit and planet. I've been operating all my businesses like that since 1996.
There must be a partnership at the community level because no public purse has got the money or the resources to look after our population. It is about how we encourage working in partnership.
For example, on the high street, we know retail has gone online. We should have early intervention when it comes to health, mental health, provision for respite for carers, financial aid, etc., since financial stress is one of the biggest stresses that people face in the community. Let's bring caring into the community into the high street. And that's with partnership between public private and the charitable sector.
What do you have to say about the Migration Act and the Rwanda deportations?
Rwanda is a complete and utter nonsense waste of time. It breaks international law and is never going to happen. The projection is that we would have wasted 450 million pounds.
It has been a political ploy to agitate racism and is unforgivable.
We do have a problem with migration, but this will continue to increase because of climate change, political instability and war. What we need to have are proper legal routes, a properly funded border force, proper processing, we must do something that is just, fair and humane.
Before we left the EU, before Brexit, small boat crossings did not exist. We had the Dublin Returns Agreement and we worked in partnership. We must sign back up to the Dublin Agreement and then work at the source.
One of the things we propose as a party, is to say that foreign aid needs to be reviewed. Foreign aid needs to include measures for climate change. There needs to be more investment in creating stable economies in the countries where people come from, to tackle the root cause of the problem.
Of course, we need migration because we need a workforce. We cannot operate in our present workforce without migration. But we need to have proper migration figures that does not include the legal migration figures from Hong Kong, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, along with international students. The latter is a group that benefits our economy to the tune of 42 billion pounds a year. They're not a drain, they're an economic benefit.
What is a message you would like to give to the audience of V4CE?
As a woman of colour, I have been a campaigner for 34 years. I have always been told it is not my place to speak up, that I should be grateful to be here. We must speak up. Nobody should tell us what to say, where to go, and how to fight. I would encourage everybody from the ethnic minority community to stand up and speak up for your community, whatever the backlash.
I get death threats daily. I was looked after by the terrorist squad for two years, because of my court cases. Somebody went to prison for wanting to have me killed. But the abuse has fuelled me I thought, “You're not going to win. You're not going to make this country a place where that is normal. I have three children and I do not want them to live in that world. So, I'm going to fight for them.”
We must stop it by standing up and using our voices. The analogy I tend to use is: think of a cup where we are all one drop, but we all drop into the cup, we suddenly become full.
That one drop is so important. Every voice counts.
Ditipriya Acharya,
Senior Media, Marketing and Communications Officer
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