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Labour's welfare policies were in disarray last night after Harriet Harman said it should be made easier for immigrants to send benefit payments to relatives abroad.
At a meeting in her constituency, the party’s deputy leader praised claimants who funnel taxpayers’ cash to Africa as ‘hidden heroes’.
Bizarrely she claimed the practice – widely seen as an abuse of the overstretched welfare system – was a way of boosting international aid.
Taxpayers foot a £20million annual bill to pay child benefit to immigrants whose children are not even living in Britain.
But Miss Harman sparked ridicule yesterday by saying she would like to see tax breaks to make it even easier for immigrants to send cash home.
Her views have left Labour leader Ed Miliband with a fresh headache. Last night his aides pointedly refused to say whether he backed her views.
The Tories dismissed Miss Harman’s claims as proof that Labour was out of touch with the public on the need to slash welfare costs.
Labour’s deputy leader, who is also the party’s spokesman on international development, made the comments at a meeting in her Camberwell and Peckham constituency in South London.
Miss Harman, sometimes referred to as the MP for Lagos because of her high number of Nigerian-born constituents, said she had been impressed by how many were sending benefits cash back home.
