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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Tom Batchelor

Man charged over 'racially aggravated threats' to Brexit legal challenger Gina Miller

A man has been charged over alleged threats made to Gina Miller, the campaigner who won a Supreme Court battle against the Government over Brexit.

Rhodri Colwyn Philipps, 50, from Knightsbridge, London, was charged with “malicious communications with racially aggravated factors”.

Mr Phillips, a peer who holds the titles 4th Viscount St Davids and Baron Strange of Knockin, has been released on bail and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 4 April.

Rhodri Colwyn Philipps, 4th Viscount St Davids ()

He was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Falcon, which deals with cybercrimes, on 25 January.

The arrest followed a complaint about online threats made online against Ms Miller, who was the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court Brexit case that forced Theresa May to get parliamentary approval for triggering Article 50.

The 51-year-old said she had received racist messages following her decision to spearhead the legal challenge, which concluded in January with defeat for the Government. 

By a majority of eight to three, the Supreme Court ruled that Ms May could not trigger Article 50 without an Act of Parliament authorising her to do so.

Supreme Court President Lord Neuberger said the judgment was not about the referendum result or a comment on the merits of leaving or staying in the EU.

In an interview last month Ms Miller said the threats were not just from “keyboard warriors” on social media, but people “who have taken the time to address an envelope, put a first class stamp on, walk down the street, put it in a postbox”.

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