Anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller scared to leave her home after 'acid attack threats'

Threats: Gina Miller said she is scared to leave her home following threats of acid attacks
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Hatty Collier10 August 2017
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Gina Miller, the campaigner who won a Brexit legal challenge against the Government, has told how she is afraid to leave her home after being threatened with acid attacks.

The businesswoman said if the threats became too much to bear she would “seriously consider” leaving the UK.

Ms Miller spoke of her fears just weeks after Viscount Rhodri Philips was jailed for 12 weeks for racially abusing her on social media.

She told Verdict magazine: “I have been getting threats of having acid thrown in my face for months and months now.

Ms Miller won a Brexit legal challenge against the Government 
AFP/Getty Images

“When I see someone walk towards me on the street with a bottle of water or something, I just freak out.”

Ms Miller said she has had 24-hour security installed in her home, hired security guards and is forced to spend weekends at home with her family because she cannot face leaving the house.

“If it came to the point that it was just too much to bear from a security point of view, if I sat down with my police teams and we felt that it was a really serious threat, I would have to seriously consider leaving the UK,” she added.

Jailed: The 4th Viscount St Davids, Rhodri Philipps
PA

“This would break my heart because I love this country and I am fighting for it. But we might have to.”

Philipps, the 4th Viscount St Davids, was jailed after he offered £5,000 "for the first person to 'accidentally' run over this bloody troublesome first generation immigrant."

The 50-year-old wrote the comment just four days after Ms Miller won a landmark High Court challenge against the Government last year.

Philipps, of Knightsbridge, wrote: "This f***ing boat jumper come to country, then believes she knows better than the people of our country, what is best for us.

"If this is what we should expect from immigrants, send them back to their stinking jungles."

The aristocrat also offered £2000 for one of his friends to "carve into pieces" an immigrant, Arnold Sube, whose housing situation had made the news.

Philipps, who insisted on being referred to in court as Lord St Davids, defended himself at a trial at Westminster magistrates court, insisting his comments had been "banter" and were not racist.

But Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot found him guilty of sending two menacing messages, saying his claims that the messages had not been race-fuelled slurs was "ludicrous".

In a victim impact statement, Ms Miller said Philipps' message was part of a "vicious hate campaign" as she was "vilified" for taking the Brexit case to the Supreme Court.

She said she felt "violated" by the Facebook post, adding that the level of racism aimed at her because of her challenge to the government over Brexit had left her "scarred".

Philipps sent the message to Ms Miller in November last year as she was challenging the government in court over triggering Brexit, arguing that Parliament should vote on the move.

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