Gina Miller’s new party True and Fair appeals to voters

Gina Miller is probably best known as the campaigner who forced Theresa May’s government to get Parliamentary approval before invoking the EU constitutional clause setting in train the UK’s departure, and who also got the Supreme Court to rule that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament was unlawful.

She is now the founder and leader of a new political party, The True and Fair Party.

And along with the party’s candidate for the soon-to-be-created constituency of East Wiltshire Peter Force-Jones, Ms Miller was in Marlborough this week to launch the party’s policy initiative on the countryside.

She said: “We think the protection and support for the countryside and country communities is not nearly a high enough priority. We want to hear what people in rural communities think, we want to hear their voice, because they haven’t been listened to.

Mr Force-Jones said: “I grew up here in the Wiltshire countryside, and I know the challenges that rural communities face.

“My priorities are things like transport, housing and access to GPs and NHS dentists.

“The connectivity between villages and town is very patchy at best, and in the evenings there’s nothing, you either have to drive or get a taxi if you want to go out.

Ms Miller said her party would stop spending more on HS2 and use the money instead for rural areas and added: “It’s not just road and rail connectivity- we’re talking about broadband as well, all the areas where they need proper internet access.”

The party also wants to offer more to farmers. Ms Miller said: “Farming has been really neglected since 2016 and promises to farmers have been broken. The checks on EU-imported food have been delayed for the fifth time and a lot of the trade deals have let down our farmers.

“Prices at the farm gate are not sustainable and we would look at the profits the supermarkets are making.”

Despite new and smaller parties finding it difficult to make an electoral breakthrough in parliamentary terms, both Ms Miller and Mr Force-Jones are optimistic that the True and Fair party will do well.

Ms Miller said: “The polling we have done show that two thirds of people would cast a “none of the above” vote for the main parties. There’s a lack of trust and what’s happened over the last few years has equally tainted all parties. People are desperate for someone to restore that trust.

Mr Force Jones added: “People are fed up with politics altogether. They’re saying we need someone else to restore trust.”