SOMETIMES politicians reveal their views in a short, memorable phrase.
Remember when Gordon Brown called Labour supporter Gillian Duffy a “bigoted woman” for raising her concerns about the economy and immigration?
AlamyThere has been a ‘constant flow’ of taxis arriving at hotels to service migrants[/caption]
AlamyPerhaps the phrase Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, will be remembered for is ‘ordinary citizens’[/caption]
It demonstrated how out of touch he had become after 13 years in power.
“Ordinary citizens” — perhaps that’s the phrase Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, will be remembered for, after defending the provision of expensive taxis, some as high as £600 for one return trip, for small-boat arrivals.
He said: “These are not ordinary citizens just jumping on a bus.”
So the bus is good enough for “ordinary citizens” like me and you, but for the VIPs arriving on our southern shores uninvited, it just won’t cut the mustard.
The minister was reacting to extraordinary revelations by BBC reporter Sue Mitchell, who had recently spent time in four of the 200 migrant hotels that collectively cost the British taxpayer £5.77million a day.
She uncovered many outrageous things, such as migrants deliberately coming here to have kids, believing it will guarantee them a passport, and those working in the employment black market.
But perhaps most alarming was her revelation that there was a “constant flow” of taxis arriving at the hotels to service migrants.
This industrial-scale profligacy was due to migrants’ automatic rights to be transported to consultant, hospital and even GP appointments.
One trip saw a migrant take a 250-mile trip to a doctor that cost £300 each way — a journey he said he would have been happy to take on public transport.
The man, called Kadir in Mitchell’s report, said: “Should the Home Office give me the ticket for the train?
“This is the easy way, and they know they spend too much money.
“We know as well, but we don’t have any choice. It’s crazy.”
It beggars belief that our own government is not only throwing millions at the migrant crisis but dishing out more luxuries than the migrants themselves think they deserve.
Talk about “pull factors”.
No wonder the thousands are prepared to make the perilous journey across the Channel.
It reminds me of the furore around the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge to house small-boat arrivals.
The accommodation on board was deemed good enough for British construction workers at the Shetland Gas Plant in 2013, but was considered a national scandal when it was used to house asylum seekers.
So instead, we are housing them in four-star hotels, with bed and board covered by you, the taxpayer.
They benefit from taxpayer-funded debit cards with money loaded on every week.
Fairness has gone out the window. We have an explicitly two-tier system now.
John O’Connell
They get access to dental care and healthcare. Plus a host of other benefits and perks.
Labour-run Lambeth provides £100 grants for asylum seekers to pay for school uniforms, while at the same time making clear that if you’re an “ordinary citizen” the council “do not offer financial help for school uniforms” no matter how much you’re struggling.
Fairness has gone out the window. We have an explicitly two-tier system now.
Not only in justice, where we see asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu sentenced to 12 months for sexual assault, while Lucy Connolly is locked up for an — albeit revolting — post on X.
Hard-working Brits cough up more and more of their wages to pay for the lifestyles of those who contribute next to nothing. Just look at Motability.
That scheme, which allows some recipients of Personal Independence Payments to trade their benefits for a leased vehicle, is exempt from a range of taxes we all have to pay.
No VAT, insurance premium tax or road tax is charged on Motability cars, which, unbelievably, include Alfa Romeos and BMWs.
But do our political class care?
Hopelessly inept
They don’t need to worry about the massive energy bills, the annual hikes in train fares, the council tax rises that “ordinary citizens” worry about.
They can simply stick some of it on expenses.
Happy to make the rules, they show no compunction about breaking them.
Keir Starmer was right to hammer the Tories when they broke the rules, particularly around lockdown.
And yet it has been claimed that he might have benefitted from thousands of pounds’ worth of support from the group Labour Together without bothering to declare it in his parliamentary register of interests.
Not something he would have been quick to forgive or forget if the shoe was on the other foot.
We’re cursed with a hopelessly inept government that seems incapable of fixing the mess the country is in.
There is no more pressing priority than restoring the sense of fairness that is vital to preserve the social fabric.
Yet this government has given us a Housing Secretary who did not pay the correct stamp duty and a homelessness minister kicking out her tenants.
Labour are not just doing nothing about the two-tier state, they are choosing to make it worse.
John O’Connell is chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance
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