Harriet Harman praises 'hero' immigrants who send welfare handouts home

By Simon Walters
Last updated at 2:45 PM on 12th December 2010
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* The deputy Labour leader was speaking to voters with foreign backgrounds in her Southwark constituency

Helping hand: Harriet Harman gives some advice to one of her Muslim constituents


Helping hand: Harriet Harman gives some advice to one of her Muslim constituents

Harriet Harman has praised ‘heroic’ immigrants who claim welfare payments in Britain and use the cash to support families living abroad.

She said the Government should make it easier for them to send the money home and called for tax refunds to encourage more immigrants to follow suit, in particular those who paid for their children to be educated in the Third World.

The Labour Deputy Leader, who is also the party’s spokesman on International Development, derided ‘those who say we should look after our own first’ in the recession and vowed to fight any attempt to cut the £9.4 billion overseas aid budget.

Last night the Government challenged her ‘bizarre’ conduct.

Her comments were made at a meeting at Southwark town hall in her South London constituency, called to find ways to increase the flow of money from Britain to other nations in ‘remittances’ – money sent by families who have settled here to those left behind.

The meeting was attended by many local voters with Nigerian, Ugandan and other foreign backgrounds, as well as representatives of aid charities.

An eyewitness said: ‘Harriet led a discussion on how to back up what she called the “hidden heroes of development through developing new policies on remittancesâ€