Viscount arrested over ‘racist threats’ to Brexit campaigner

AN ARISTOCRAT has been charged with sending racially aggravated messages directed at the anti-Brexit court campaigner Gina Miller.

Rhodri Colwyn Philipps, the 4th Viscount St Davids, was charged yesterday with sending malicious communications with racially aggravated factors, the Metropolitan Police said.

Lord St Davids, 50, of Knightsbridge, London, who also holds the titles Lord Strange of Knockin, Lord Hungerford, and Lord de Moleyns, is known as a keen polo player. He once owned a sprawling property in West Sussex known as Strange Place.

Ms Miller, 51, complained of receiving a series of racist messages after her decision to spearhead the legal challenge to the EU referendum vote, which resulted in an historic Supreme Court defeat for the Government over Brexit in January.

A Guyana-born mother of three, she became the face of the first successful legal battle against Brexit, but said in a radio interview that it had resulted in her becoming “apparently the most hated woman in Britain”.

Lord St Davids, whose family motto is Ducit Amor Patriae, “Patriotism is my motive”, was arrested by officers from the Met’s Operation Falcon on January 25 after a complaint was received concerning alleged threats made online against a 51-year-old woman.

He is a member of one of the oldest aristocratic families in Wales, which dates back to the Normans. Members of the family have served as MPs and sat in the Lords.

Ms Miller has previously said that she has had to spend £60,000 on security after receiving threats, but they did not deter her from pursuing the Brexit case.

She argued that the UK would be deprived of important, constitutional rights if Article 50 was triggered, such as the right to free movement, free movement of goods, and the right to freedom of services across Europe.

Lord St Davids has been bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 4.