Minnie Turner was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union and of the Tax Resistance League. She ran her home at Sea View, Victoria Road, Brighton as a boarding house specifically aimed at Suffragettes.
She began her political career as a supporter of the Liberal party, and a member of the moderate National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). However, disappointed by the failure of the Liberal government to introduce legislation that would enable women to vote, Turner joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1908, leaving her position as honorary secretary of the Brighton Women's Liberal Association.
She took boarders in her house in Brighton, especially fellow supporters of women's suffrage. Advertising in suffrage newspapers such as 'Votes for Women' she urged ‘Suffragettes spend your holidays in Brighton, central. Terms moderate.' Turner accommodated many of the leading figures of the WSPU, such as Emmeline Pankhurst, Emily Wilding Davison and Minnie Baldock. Suffragettes stayed with her while on WSPU business and when recuperating from prison. The many Suffragette visitors to Brighton are captured in postcards in the museum collection, some featuring photos of Turner's guests, others sent to her with thanks.
Turner herself was imprisoned for her suffragette activities, being sent to Holloway in May 1912 for breaking a window at the Home Office. Anti-Suffragettes sent abusive postcards to Turner threatening to break her windows in retaliation, and her house in Brighton was attacked in 1912. Turner sold pro-Suffragette postcards showing the broken window with a notice stuck below the hole reading 'Masculine logic. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery'.
She was also a member of the Tax Resistance League, whose motto was "No Vote No Tax". In 1912 Turner had goods seized by bailiffs and sold at auction in lieu of tax. Turner and the other members of the League used the auction to stage a public protest, rousing publicity for the cause of women's suffrage.