Gina Miller led a legal challenge against Prime Minister Theresa May's right to trigger Brexit negotiations without parliament's approval.
Gina Miller led a legal challenge against Prime Minister Theresa May's right to trigger Brexit negotiations without parliament's approval.
BEN STANSALL/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Story highlights

Miller won a case in November that thwarted the Prime Minister's Brexit plan

The businesswoman was sent death threats after her win

London CNN  — 

A 55-year-old man has been arrested over racist online threats he allegedly made against Gina Miller, the businesswoman behind a high-profile legal challenge to Brexit.

While London’s Metropolitan Police did not name Miller, the businesswomanconfirmed in an email to CNN that the case wasrelated to her.

Gina Miller speaking outside the High Court in London on November 3 after winning a legal Brexit challenge.
Gina Miller speaking outside the High Court in London on November 3 after winning a legal Brexit challenge.
NIKLAS HALLE'N/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

The police said that the man was arrested on Monday on “suspicion of racially aggravated malicious communications” and that he was later released on bail.

The case is among “a number of ongoing investigations by the police into a number of serious abusive and threatening letters, emails and telephone calls,” Miller said.

Miller, a 51-year-old investment banker, was the chief claimant in a case that thwarted the UK government’s plans to formally begin the process of Britain’s exit from the European Union without a vote in parliament. British Prime Minister Theresa May had hoped to bypass MPs to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty – the legal mechanism required to begin the divorce process from the union – by the end of March.

Rape and death threats

Following the court decision, Miller – who was born in Guyana but has lived in the UK for 41 years – says online trolls sent her rape and death threats.

She said other abuse included people telling her she was not human, that she was a primate, and that she belonged in a kitchen.

“That’s the nicest of some of them. It is unbelievable,” Miller said.

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Business woman Gina Miller, one of the claimants who challenged plans for Brexit, speaks to the media outside the High Court in London, Thursday Nov. 3, 2016. In a major blow for Britain's government, the High Court ruled Thursday that the prime minister can't trigger the U.K.'s exit from the European Union without approval from Parliament. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)
Hurdles hamper the start of formal Brexit process
02:38 - Source: CNN

“I am really cross at the politicians and the media who are whipping this up because they are the ones inciting racism and violence and acrimony.”

Britain voted in a referendum in June to leave the EU following months of public debate that was punctuated by divisiveness and seen to have fueled an increase in racial hate attacks.

Supreme Court hears government appeal

Britain’s High Court ruled November 3 that triggering Article 50 would need to go through parliament, and a government appeal to that decision is now being heard by the Supreme Court.

All 11 Supreme Court judges will hear the four-day case – the first time this has happened since the court was established in 2009 – before giving their ruling in early 2017.

Michel Barnier, chief negotiator for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations with the United Kingdom under article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) gives a press conference at the European Commission on December 6, 2016, in Brussels. / AFP / EMMANUEL DUNAND (Photo credit should read EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)
Michel Barnier, chief negotiator for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations with the United Kingdom under article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) gives a press conference at the European Commission on December 6, 2016, in Brussels. / AFP / EMMANUEL DUNAND (Photo credit should read EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

Related article UK may only have 18 months to conclude Brexit deal, EU warns

Experts say parliament is unlikely to block Brexit outright, but the deliberations mean a Brexit could be delayed, particularly by opposition in the upper chamber, the House of Lords. Lawmakers may get a chance to influence what kind of deal the government negotiates with the EU.

May appeared optimistic about a clean Brexit, saying Tuesday that she was looking for a “red, white and blue Brexit,” referring to the colors of Britain’s flag, that is “the right deal for Britain.”

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, warned Tuesday that Britain may only have 18 months to strike an exit deal from the bloc.

CNN’s Sebastian Shukla and Angela Dewan contributed to this report.