We were delighted to welcome the activist and aspiring MP, Gina Miller to Nonsuch on Thursday 15^th June.

Ms Miller recounted the extraordinary story of her life in which she has sought to fight and change the system as an activist alongside her roles as a successful business woman and mother. Ms Miller came to the public's attention when she was the lead plaintiff in two judicial reviews that were raised against the UK government. The first, Miller vs the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU challenged the right of the government to begin the process of leaving the EU without the consent of Parliament whilst her second case, Miller v. the Prime Minister saw her challenge the right of the Prime Minister to prorogue Parliament. Despite facing considerable abuse and the threat of violence and intimidation, Ms Miller successful won both cases. As she explained, somebody else could have stepped forward, but she chose to do so because she was clear that it was a right and just cause.

Our students were particularly interested to understand why Ms Miller has now taken the decision to run for Parliament, why she has decided to create a new political party, the True and Fair Party, as a vehicle to do so rather than join an established party and above all, why Epsom?

It was wonderful to see the tough questioning Ms Miller faced from our students who asked her everything from her political ideology, to the policies of the True and Fair Party and the changes she’d make to the electoral system. She later said that she felt she’d had a more intense grilling from our students than she had faced from most journalists and politicians.

It was wonderful that politics students and teachers from both Carshalton High School for Girls and Wallington High School for Girls were able to attend also and their desire to travel to Nonsuch early in the morning is representative of their huge respect for what Ms Miller has achieved.

For our students, the major takeaway from Ms Miller’s speech was ‘why wait, leadership begins now’. We hope that they can now heed this call to arms.

As a black woman, a successful entrepreneur, an activist, a mother and now aspiring politician, Ms Miller provided an inspiring role model for all of our students. We wish her the best of luck in her campaign to become the MP for Epsom and Ewell and look forward to welcoming her back to Nonsuch in the future.

Mr David Burton

Nonsuch High School for Girls