People happily protest Trump without realising our government is just as bad (Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

One of the most interesting things about my job as a local councillor in Glasgow is that you never know what kind of day it’s going to be.

One of the worst things about being a local councillor, in these austere times, is picking through the wreckage wrought by brutal policies sent down from above.

I didn’t know, last Wednesday, what kind of day it was going to be. I had received a late-night phone call from a church minister frantic with worry because one of her congregation had received a letter saying that she had 24 hours to vacate her accommodation as her asylum support was being cut off immediately.



Her support — a whole £37.75 a week, plus accommodation — was being immediately removed because the Home Office did not believe she was destitute. One of their reasons was that she had toys in her house (hand-me-downs from a kind neighbour) and money in her account – money she had received from the Home Office!


So because she could not ‘prove’ her destitution, they decided to make her and her four children homeless and destitute with 24 hours notice – even though you are entitled to three working days to appeal.

The letter from the Home Office had no email address, no phone number, no way of contacting except to send said appeal by post, which would be impossible within 24 hours. She was advised to fax (fax!) an appeal to a number that was not on the letter.

When I arrived at her home first thing, I found a single parent out of her mind with worry, surrounded by an older child, and a five year-old with profound autism who is incredibly sensitive to disruption — like say, strangers coming into his home and making his mummy cry — and twin toddlers.

It’s worth noting here that Glasgow City Council would be picking up the bill if the Home Office made this family homeless. Let us also observe that it’s only because there were children involved that the council would be able to house this family.

Having survived horrendous violence and sexual assault before fleeing her country of origin, she had lived with domestic abuse, finally able to leave her ex-husband just months ago.

‘Kim, I really thought I would be getting my life together and now this.’

She’s also incredibly resilient, strong, hospitable and kind, with serious parenting skills. You don’t have to be kind to deserve basic human rights, but it was a pleasure to spend my day with her.

I wanted to be there to work out a support plan; to ensure that if her landlord — the multinational security firm Serco — showed up they would have a councillor observing their behaviour. I wanted to be there so that if the family were made homeless, I could ensure immediate social work support.

It’s worth noting here that Glasgow City Council would be picking up the bill if the Home Office made this family homeless. Let us also observe that it’s only because there were children involved that the council would be able to house this family.

A single asylum-seeking woman without kids is not eligible for statutory housing benefit, homelessness accommodation or services, nor is she allowed to work.



After a frantic morning of calls and emails with Serco insisting they were merely enforcing Home Office decisions and it is in their contract to do so, social workers insisting that the charity Migrant Help are the contracted advice providers and the Migrant Help helpline ringing out then placing me 64th in the queue.

With the kids literally climbing the walls, a wonderful lady from the church looked after most of them while I took this lady and her very distressed son to local charity Govan Community Project, who were just incredible.

The director met with us, applied for a crisis grant and made an appointment for the next day for her to meet with a caseworker and assemble all the documentation to fight the wrongful cessation of support.

We went home via Aldi and the foodbank for essentials, to find that nobody from Serco had showed up. All their bluster was scare tactics today — but given that previous Home Office landlords used to change the locks immediately, including, as my friend witnessed, while one woman was in labour, leaving her and her newborn destitute and homeless — we must be grateful for small mercies for as long as they are allowed to last.

This lady has been through hell, but having had someone meet her face to face, take her seriously, and explain her next steps, plus the promise of further support, means she thinks she will now be able to eat something, and get some sleep. Then she’s back to normal – the resumption of her six year wait for a decision on her asylum claim.


So that was Wednesday.

A snapshot of what the UK Government is doing to people in our name.

Recently many of us — rightly — raised merry hell to greet Donald Trump on our shores. But at least he functions as one big orange target for rage.

Meanwhile, our own government has been pursuing policies just as pernicious, just as shameful, for years, but quietly – a very British kind of bureaucratic torture. It’s been a deliberate targeting of those with fewest resources to fight back.

Anyone paying attention should be angry – and it’s time we focused that fury closer to home.

MORE: If we don’t hold police responsible for deaths in their custody, how can we make sure they’re not repeated?

MORE: Don’t believe the hype around the government’s public sector pay rise

MORE: Brexit Secretary admits government is ‘looking into food stockpiling issue’