A London council is considering shipping tenants that'll be hit by the coming benefit cuts as far away as Leicester and Birmingham.

Camden Council's Tory leader, Andrew Mennear, has backed the plan, saying that "London's not everything. There is a life outside of London".

It has been predicted that at least 750 families in the borough will be severely affected by the Government's imminent housing benefit caps, the Camden New Journal reported.

Camden's Labour councillors have condemned the idea as a desperate effort to avoid making more people homeless in the area.

One Labour councillor said: “Nobody wants to do this, but what can we do? What can we do?”

Council sources told the New Journal that places close to train routes to Euston and King's Cross are being considered as possible places for rehousing residents priced out of the borough by the cuts - and these include Leicester and Birmingham.

Cllr Mennear continued: “I give the council credit for looking at other cities to help people and looking at alternatives where there will be housing and people can live within the cap and possibly find it easier to find work.

“We were left in a horrendous economic mess by the Labour government. People recognise that, and see that welfare has to be reformed. The benefits system hasn’t been fair and it has appeared to people working hard that they have to work very hard just to get the same income as others were getting on benefits.”