Where the MPs’ expenses would have been better spent

By Rowenna Davis / @rowenna_davis

As the moats, horse manure, chandeliers and duck houses have come pouring out of the Westminster expenses bag over the last fortnight, I have been working on a series of interviews with asylum seekers. The power inequalities couldn’t be more pronounced. Whilst those at the top are getting more than they are entitled to, those at the bottom are consistently getting less than they deserve.

Many would argue that asylum seekers should not be entitled to the same support as vulnerable British citizens. And they are not. Their benefits are just two thirds of the average and often come in vouchers rather than cash; their education is segregated and their health benefits are difficult to obtain. But talking to the women at Crossroads Women’s Centre, it became clear that most of them are not even getting the small, second-class services they are entitled to, let alone the ones they need.

One woman told me about how she arrived in Heathrow airport when she was thirteen, alone and clutching little more than a passport. She’d made a lucky escape from armed rebels in Uganda, and was looking for refugee. As an unaccompanied minor, she should have been entitled to state support until she was 18, but this was denied. With no benefits, she fell on to the streets. When she begged the council for help, they shouted at her to go away.

In cases like these, asylum seekers don’t get what they are legally entitled to because of discrimination. In others, it is because social workers do not have the time or training to get to grips with an overly complicated and ever-changing system of benefits. But most frequently, social workers cannot help because national policy – perpetuated by this Labour government – prevents them from doing so.

One woman I spoke to for example, a lady who had fled rape in Burundi, was left pregnant on the streets after she was told she wasn’t eligible for benefits. After a month sleeping on busses and inside doorways, she tried to kill herself. Luckily she was rescued and admitted into a psychiatric hospital where the doctors – knowing the state would not provide for her – decided to keep her in the ward until she gave birth. But when she was too weak to breastfeed her newborn son, the nurses still said she was “not eligible” for milk on the ward.

After days spent hearing stories like this, I’d go home and switch on the news. To hear that an MP had managed to claim £1,600 for a floating duck house whilst an unaccompanied child was being denied shelter was shocking. To hear that claims were being made for champagne when babies were being denied milk was diabolical. If this sounds overly emotive, it shouldn’t. We must be clear about this – MPs expenses are paid with public money – these funds should be going to provide a safety net for the most vulnerable, not being redirected into pockets that are already adequately full.

These women’s stories throw the stark power inequalities in society into sharp relief. Whilst MPs – the majority of whom are privileged, white and male – take more than they are entitled to, the most vulnerable – largely women and children from ethnic minority backgrounds – are getting less than they deserve. Fighting for the welfare of the poorest has always been Labour’s comparative advantage in the past, and it is something that the Tories will never win on. To move forward, the party needs to ensure justice of entitlement for those at the bottom as well as those at the top.

This article was also published at The Guardian’s Joe Public Blog.