PLATELL'S PEOPLE: Shameless family that proves we were right to vote Brexit 

For every hard-working family of modest income, paying taxes, raising children and struggling to get by, the story of Arnold Mballe Sube will leave them burning with anger.

Cameroon-born Mr Sube insists the three-bed council house he lives in with his wife and their eight children at taxpayers’ expense is too small. Yet he has refused three offers of larger homes from Luton Council, including a five-bedroom property.

‘We are entitled to six bedrooms,’ he insists, even though he uses one room in his existing home as a study and gym. ‘The council has to support me in order for me to become a positive person and contribute to the tax system.’

Arnold Mballe Sube, pictured with his family, is proof that Britain was correct to vote Brexit

Arnold Mballe Sube, pictured with his family, is proof that Britain was correct to vote Brexit

Mr Sube’s sense of entitlement is utterly shameless. He arrived four years ago from France with his wife and seven children — an eighth came along once they were here — to study as a psychiatric nurse for three years, courtesy of a £27,000 NHS grant.

As a student in Britain, he has claimed £44,000 a year in benefits. He has run up a £38,400 Hilton hotel bill plus a £21,000 room service and restaurant charge, both paid by the taxpayer. And still he says he is being ‘neglected’ and that the council is ‘trying to make it hard’ for him!

Let’s not forget Mr and Mrs Sube have smartphones, a laptop, a 60in flatscreen TV with Sky HD in their front room, a 52in screen in their bedroom as well as a TV, Xbox and dozens of games. All paid for by us.

The fact is that Mr Sube will never be able to pay back the generosity lavished on him by Britain. His starting salary as a psychiatric nurse will be £21,000 if he ever gets a job, while the cost of educating his eight children at state schools alone will run into millions.

The council says that if he refuses the latest offer of a five-bedroom house they will evict him because, under the law, he’ll have made himself ‘intentionally homeless’. Good for them.

Predictably, Mr Sube has engaged solicitors to challenge the council if they try to evict him. And guess who’ll pay their bill? Taxpayers, of course.

Isn’t the real disgrace in all this the fact we allowed an unqualified father with low earning potential to come with his huge family to Britain, offering him grants, a free home and vast sums to live here? Millions of decent Britons who have worked and paid their taxes for years can only dream of such a lifestyle. Countless far more deserving families have been waiting years for council accommodation.

Mr Sube and his family were able to come and live in Britain because of the EU freedom of movement laws. They emigrated from Cameroon to Paris where they become French — and EU — citizens. This meant Britain was obliged to take them in.

Is it any wonder so many people — appalled by such abuse of our welfare system — voted Brexit?

WESTMINSTER NOTICEBOARD... 

Isn't it apt that Jeremy Corbyn should choose the now defunct band UB40 to join him on stage at one of his leadership hustings?

It’s a relic from the Eighties and one former member is even being sued by his own brothers. 

Corbyn could always step in with a rendition of their big hit, Red Red Whine.

How shameful that in Keith Vaz’s 400-word resignation statement there was just one sentence about — and no apology to — his loyal wife and their two children. 

Instead, he said that he was ‘immeasurably proud’ of his role as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee. 

What a pity the slippery old fraud wasn’t a bit more caring about his own ‘home affairs’.

As Labour rages over the introduction of new grammar schools, we are reminded that Jeremy Corbyn and five of his top team, including John McDonnell and Diane Abbott, went to them. 

While I’m a big believer in grammars, Corbyn and Co. might be proof they’re not such a good thing after all.

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She’s the woman credited with breaking up the world’s greatest band, yet John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono says her memoirs won’t mention The Beatles at all. 

The new book is all about her and her achievements. 

Short book then, Yoko.

Sniffing out Botox? 

Talentless Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden was knocked to the floor at an awards ceremony by an excited dog. 

Perhaps Baxter the Labrador is a sniffer dog, trained to detect concealed substances — like the Botox the impossibly ageless Holden swears she doesn’t use any more.

Amanda Holden, pictured right with Baxter, was knocked down by the Labrador recently

 It's miserable being a mistress

The mistress of Lloyds Banking Group boss Antonio Horta-Osorio finally broke cover and returned to work at the Russell Group of top universities.

Blonde Wendy Platt looked sad and haggard as she left her central London flat this week.

She was almost as distraught as Horta-Osorio’s wife Ana when they were photographed on holiday this summer and his affair was splashed across the front page of The Sun newspaper.

But then, Antonio, as the boss of Lloyds, is a banker. 

And we all know how used they are to inflicting misery on people.

Shaken and stirred by Swift

Tom Hiddleston was distraught after his split with Taylor Swift, pictured right 

Tom Hiddleston was distraught after his split with Taylor Swift, pictured right 

No wonder Tom Hiddleston was looking distraught after his break-up with multi-millionairess Taylor Swift. 

It seems one of the reasons for tensions in their relationship was his obsessive fitness regime — possibly inspired by an ambition to take over from Daniel Craig and his beach body as the next James Bond. 

Forget it. 

No one could take seriously a 007 who is dumped by his more powerful girlfriend, however sculpted he is; however tight his budgie-smugglers. 

Cold Feet returned after 13 years to rapturous reviews but without the lead love interest, Rachel, played by Helen Baxendale. 

Her character had previously been killed off in a car crash, and the actress turned down the offer to return as a ghost or in any other capacity. 

She thought it ridiculous. Now, Helen must be kicking herself.

After all, Bobby Ewing returned after a car crash, his wife Pam revealing ‘it was all a dream’. Dallas went on for 31 more episodes.

If Cold Feet takes off again, as it surely will, Baxendale will look back and think ‘it was all a nightmare’.

Three cheers for the old fashioned head teacher

Hurrah for headteacher Matthew Tate, who sent home 50 children on the first day of the school term and 20 on the second as they broke his strict uniform rules.

When I was at school, the two-inches-above-the-knee-maximum rule for skirts was ruthlesslessly enforced, with spot checks in assembly. 

Teachers forced us to kneel while they measured suspect skirts with a wooden ruler.

Then they flicked up those skirts to make sure we were wearing the mandatory bottle-green, big, school knickers.

It wouldn’t be allowed nowadays — not even by Mr Tate.

 

Bespectacled little Owen Howkins has a rare disease that attacks every muscle in his body. 

People used to stare so much as his dad pushed him in his wheelchair that he would hide under his hoodie.

Then he adopted a three-legged rescue dog called Haatchi, and people stopped him in the street to pet his pooch.

It’s a sad world where people feel more at ease stroking a disabled dog than they do talking to a little boy in a wheelchair.

 

A survey conducted by a hair transplant clinic finds that Prince Harry is the hottest royal in the world. 

Would brother William have beaten Harry ten years ago, before his hair started falling out? 

I’m afraid poor Wills’s sex appeal is disappearing as fast as his follicles. 

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Having been paid £30 million to be the front man sipping Nespresso coffee, the eco-warrior, hybrid-car driving George Clooney must have a nasty taste in his mouth.

Due to his patronage, the coffee pods’ sales have soared 30 per cent last year alone.

Now we learn they take 500 years to break down and the capsules are an environmental disaster. There’s no hypocrite like a celebrity hypocrite.

After a two-year health regime, the hitherto rotund actor Timothy Spall has become a shadow of his former self. 

His extreme weight loss makes him almost unrecognisable as the lovable character Barry Taylor he played in the hit TV series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. 

Was losing his paunch a good decision? 

Some people are more adorable when they’re cuddly.

Timothy Spall, pictured, is almost unreconisable from his lovable character in the hit 1980s series Auf Wiedersehen Pet where he played Barry Taylor
Timothy Spall playing Barry Taylor in the hit ITV show Auf Wiedersehen Pet

Timothy Spall, pictured, is almost unreconisable from his lovable character in the hit 1980s series Auf Wiedersehen Pet where he played Barry Taylor, right, 

 

 

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