She was photographed posing proudly beside her husband at the polling station.
But now Miriam Gonzalez, wife of former Lib Dem leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, has revealed that she has never been eligible to vote – as she is not a British citizen.
Spanish-born Ms Gonzalez, a leading City lawyer, confessed that she has never even applied for a UK passport – although that has not prevented her being an outspoken voice in British politics, especially in her staunch opposition to Brexit.
In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Ms Gonzalez said of British citizenship: ‘I didn’t go for it because I don’t need to, frankly.’ Asked whether she might apply in the future, she added: ‘Now let’s see what is negotiated’ – as she, like three million other EU citizens living and working in Britain, is waiting to see how her status will be resolved after Brexit.
Miram Gonzalez, pictured with her husband Nick Clegg, is not eligible to vote in Britain
Ms Gonzalez went on: ‘Whenever I speak, I get all the Brexiteers saying, “Deport her, her family is not indigenous.”
‘There is an undercurrent of hate that you don’t normally see unless you are the recipient of it. I personally think it was always there as it is in every society. Normally they [the hate-mongers] do not find the opportunity to be out there in the open harassing people.’
The 49-year-old mother-of-three also challenged Theresa May’s controversial declaration to the Tory conference last year that ‘If you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere’. Ms Gonzalez said: ‘I am one of the three million and also a citizen of the world.’
A senior trade lawyer who led the EU’s negotiations at the World Trade Organisation, Ms Gonzalez was also critical of Britain’s Brexit trade team, including chief negotiator Crawford Falconer, a New Zealander.
She said: ‘One of the trade experts within the government comes from New Zealand. With all due respect, negotiating with New Zealand and Australia is so different from negotiating with the EU 27. This is the single market, the most sophisticated regulatory-based market that has ever been done and you know there have been fantastic British people within the European Commission.’
She also slammed the Government’s strategy for post-Brexit trade deals and criticised advisers who ‘have never been in the negotiating room’.
Ms Gonzales attacked Theresa May’s earlier comments about people being ‘citizens of the world’ being ‘citizens of nowhere’ claiming that she is one of the three million in the UK