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Former eastenders star michelle Collins
has revealed how she was bullied by
trolls for sending her daughter to a pri-
vate school.
The actress, pictured, sent her daugh-
ter maia-rose to £20,370-a-year Chan-
ning School in Highgate, north London.
The 58-year-old, who played Cindy
Beale in eastenders from 1988 until 1998,
wrote on Twitter: ‘I’m so sorry I sent my
daughter to a private school because
that’s what worked
for me and her.
‘Am I now going to
be vilified and bul-
lied for it? I can’t
believe the nastiness
on Twitter and from
people I even know!’
The actress, who also
played Stella Price in
Coronation Street
from 2011 to 2014,
added: ‘I will no
longer apologise for my choices in life.’
many of miss Collins’s followers tweeted
their support. one wrote: ‘People have
nothing better to do than bully. You
clearly did what you thought was best
for your daughter, and that is exactly
what a loving parent does.’
maia, now 23, got three A grades at A
level despite nearly having to drop out
after having her gall bladder removed
and two further operations.(^) Daily mail, Wednesday, March 4, 2020
By Eleanor Sharples
TV and Radio Reporter
migrants as ‘pawns’ in a bid to
‘blackmail’ the West into giving
him military support for his con-
flict with neighbouring Syria.
But he also tore into Brussels
for failing to reform asylum pol-
icy since the last migration cri-
sis in 2015-16, saying the latest
surge should act as a ‘wake-up
call’. The bloc is no better pre-
pared for sudden influxes than
four years ago, he added.
Mr Mitsotakis held crisis talks
with EU Commission president
Ursula von der Leyen and EU
C o u n c i l p r e s i d e n t C h a r l e s
Michel yesterday before the trio
visited the Greece-Turkey bor-
der to witness the chaos.
He accused Mr Erdogan of
tearing up a treaty signed with
Brussels in 2016 under which
four million refugees living in
Turkey receive billions of pounds
in aid in return for him stem-
ming migration flows.
He said: ‘This is a blatant
attempt by Turkey to use des-
perate people to promote its
geopolitical agenda and to
divert attention from the horri-
ble situation in Syria.
‘We stand ready to support
We are sending a very clear signal
that migrants and refugees can-
not be used as instruments, as
pawns in a geopolitical game.’
Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian
chancellor, also waded in, say-
ing: ‘The people are being used
by President Erdogan as a polit-
ical football, as weapons and as
instruments of pressure on the
European Union.’
Mr Erdogan’s provocative
actions were sparked by the kill-
ing of dozens of Turkish troops
in an air strike in north-west
Syria last week. He is appealing
for military support from Nato
and European allies to assist in
his conflict with Syrian leader
Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
But his call has fallen on deaf
ears, prompting him to throw
open Turkey’s borders. Mr
Erdogan will meet Russian pres-
ident Vladimir Putin, who backs
Assad, in Moscow tomorrow in a
bid to broker a ceasefire.
Countries on the EU’s external
border, such as Italy and Greece,
want other member states to
take a bigger share of arrivals
so they are not left bearing
the brunt.
Greece said it had stopped
2 4 , 0 0 0 i l l e g a l a t t e m p t s b y
migrants to storm its borders
since Saturday. Charities also
recorded 1,700 new arrivals on
the five Aegean Greek islands
near Turkey – Lesbos, Chios,
Kos, Leros and Samos.
Mrs von der Leyen unveiled a
£600million aid package to help
Greece deal with the migrants.
EU leaders stepped up their
attack on Turkey over the new
m i g r a t i o n c r i s i s y e s t e r d a y,
branding the country an ‘official
trafficker of migrants’.
Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis hit
out at Turkish premier Recep Tayyip
Erdogan for allowing thousands to
storm Greece’s sea and land borders
in recent days.
It came amid reports that people smug-
glers are being allowed to operate freely
by Turkish officials and as a result have
slashed their prices for getting migrants
into the EU to as little as £11. They usu-
ally charge hundreds of pounds.
One Turkish trafficker, who gave his
name as Semih, said: ‘It has become
something allowed from our Turkish
side. In the past we used to get them
across for $200 or $300 (£150-£230) per
person and now we do it for $15 (£11).’
On Monday it emerged that a child
died after a boat capsized off the Greek
island of Lesbos, which hosts Europe’s
biggest migrant camp.
Mr Mitsotakis accused his Turkish
counterpart of using refugees and
By David Churchill
‘Blatant use of
desperate people’
Flashpoint: Police try to disperse migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos yesterday
Smugglers charge
migrants just £
to get into the EU
Turkey in dealing with its refu-
gee problem and find a solution
to the Syria conundrum, but not
under these circumstances.
‘Unfortunately, Turkey has
become the official trafficker of
migrants to the EU and Greece
does not accept this situation.
£5billion Right
To Buy bonanza
TENANTS buying their council homes
have benefited from nearly £5billion in
discounts under the revamped Right To
Buy scheme, figures reveal.
The initiative was introduced under
Margaret Thatcher in 1980 to help council
tenants on to the housing ladder, with
ministers increasing its scope in 2012.
Now the Local Government Association
(LGA) has found buyers could knock an
average 42 per cent off the market value of
their home under the scheme.
But David Renard, of the LGA, yester-
day warned reforms are needed to ensure
enough social housing is being built to
replace homes lost through the scheme.
EastEnders star:
I was trolled
because my
girl went to
private school