Indian origin Brexit challenger fears acid attack in UK

Gina Miller, the Indian origin campaigner who won a Brexit legal challenge against the UK government, has said she has been receiving threats of acid attacks and is afraid to leave her home.

The 52-year-old businesswoman, who had mounted a successful legal challenge to prevent British Prime Minister Theresa May from triggering Brexit without Parliament's approval, on Wednesday said that if the threats continued and became too much to bear she would "seriously consider" leaving Britain, the Guardian reported.

"I have been getting threats of having acid thrown in my face for months and months now. When I see someone walk towards me on the street with a bottle of water or something, I just freak out," the newspaper quoted her as telling Verdict magazine.

With the backdrop of a spate of acid attacks across the country, she said: "My life has completely changed."

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

Four days after she won the High Court challenge against the government over Brexit last year, Phillips offered a bounty for her to be run over. He offered "£5,000 for the first person to 'accidentally' run over this bloody troublesome first generation immigrant".

He described her as a "boat jumper" adding: "If this is what we should expect from immigrants, send them back to their stinking jungles".

In a statement to court, Miller said she felt "violated" by his remarks, which were "offensive, racist and hateful".

But even Phillips' three-month jail sentence has not put people off sending malicious messages and death threats, Miller said.

"I get people who send me death threats who include their name and full address on the letters. People are so bold that they just don't hide," she 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, the report said.

"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," Miller added.

"This would break my heart because I love this country and I am fighting for it."

In January this year, the Metropolitan police said they had issued eight "cease and desist" notices to people who had sent Miller threatening messages.

--IANS

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