I was born, grew up and now work in Tower Hamlets, east London. I have an almost three-year-old daughter who I live with in a flat in the same borough, and a job with the council there. My daughter has her own home to grow up and develop in, is near my mother and grandmother, and is happy, intelligent and polite.
I'm often told I'm missing the best years of my daughter's life by getting family and friends to drop her off to her daycare each morning, but I pick her up each evening after work and we spend time together then. She sees that I support her going out to work each day and I think I am a hugely positive role model for her. Her dad and I weren't able to stay together, and broke up a while after she was born, but not everything works out.
I am forced to claim benefits despite the fact I am in work because rent is so high in my borough, as it is across most of London. I joined the local council housing waiting list when I was 17, and was told by the council that unless I found private accommodation then claimed housing benefit I would always be at home. I never see that money – it goes straight into my landlord's pocket. I can't be held personally responsible for the fact that people are in effect heavily subsidised for buying second homes by housing benefit payments, while I have to claim benefit to afford basic rent. I can't see a way out of it except capping rent in some areas. It's just become ridiculous.
I feel strongly about these issues, so when my workplace approached me to ask whether I'd be happy to be interviewed by Newsnight, I was happy to agree. My assumption was that since it was a BBC news programme, they would tell the story straight, and I would have an opportunity to put my point across. Colleagues who'd spoken to the people at Newsnight told me: Newsnight are on your side. They want you to put forward a good argument against the cuts to housing benefit. When I arrived for filming it was obvious I wasn't what they were expecting. They went ahead anyway. I didn't need to be in it: the story had been told anyway, of young people adopting a certain lifestyle, and being a drain on the state. They could have put a screenshot of my face up: my lifestyle was irrelevant. I was asked: "Don't you think you should still be at home with your mum?"; "Do you want any more children?" and worst of all, "Do you think you should have had your daughter?" I felt judged and victimised. I feel the fact I was working should have been clearly mentioned and I told them I was uncomfortable with the way filming was going.
Immediately after filming I was upset: I felt as if I'd been mugged. I'd been led to believe I'd be defending young people from benefit cuts, not defending my family. I'm so far from the scrounger benefit-claimant stereotype it seemed ridiculous. I am one woman working hard to raise my daughter. When I was ready to return to work not long after my baby was born, the benefits office did a "better off in work" calculation. They worked out that I would be a mere £20 better off a week by working. Dropping my daughter off at daycare every morning is heartbreaking, but because of my principles, I do it.
The interview screened that night. I asked a friend to come over to my flat as I couldn't watch it alone. I only told my mum and grandmother I would be on there. My family had marched with the labour movement against cuts and had I been able to give the defence against the cuts I wanted, they would have been proud. They'd have thought, "Oh, Shanene, the face of the anti-cuts movement!" but not this. I couldn't let them see this. I couldn't tell them. I was mortified at the Newsnight segment as a whole and what it said about young people. I'd wanted to talk about how there were opportunities for apprenticeships like mine in Tower Hamlets but wasn't allowed. I was used as a talking head for a type of lifestyle I didn't even represent. When I was on maternity leave, sometimes I'd avoid taking the buggy out – instead I'd carry my daughter, to avoid the stigma associated with being a single mum in London. Segments like this in Newsnight don't help.
I waited a little while, worried about abuse, then decided to search Twitter. It was a huge relief to see that everyone could see the interview was biased. People were shocked by it. I felt brave enough in a few tweets to outline my job, actual situation and how I had ended up being interviewed. There's been an overwhelming response on Twitter and to the petition I have launched asking for an apology.
Even a week later, people are still saying Newsnight should publicly apologise. A Newsnight producer rang me at work and said they were sorry if I felt I had not been accurately portrayed in the interview. I don't really feel this is sufficient.
People will always judge each other for decisions they've made in their lives, but when I come home after a long day at work and see my polite, intelligent daughter reading Dear Zoo to her grandmother it's difficult to have any regrets about decisions I've made.