'Servants sometimes need a slap - and we don't let ours out of the house': Council worker provokes storm with outrageous Twitter comments

A senior council officer has sparked fury after claiming that it is acceptable for employers to slap their servants.

Rehana Mohamed made the comments on her Twitter account after watching a TV debate on the abuse of foreign domestic workers exploited by wealthy families.

While watching the Channel 4 Dispatches programme, Britain's Secret Slaves, Cambridge University educated Miss Mohamed wrote:'Oh this is so self-righteous.

'Insensitive': Rehana Mohamed, a Brent Council consultant, called the Britain's Secret Slaves programme 'self-righteous'

'That b****y maid needs a good slap. Some ppl [sic] here have no idea what it's like having servants.



'I'm sorry but being on call 24/7 and not having a day off for months and not being allowed to leave the house DOESN'T make you a slave.'

Miss Mohamed, who is from Sri Lanka, works as a strategic change management consultant at Brent Council in north London, an ethnically diverse area.



She added: 'Damn right they should get up and make what you want. That's their job.

'We never let out female servants for their own safety.'



Miss Mohamed, who is in her thirties, today insisted she had made the astonishing comments 'in jest and that's been acknowledged'.

Sarah Teather, Brent Central MP and Education Minister, called the remarks 'unacceptable'.

Undercover: The C4 Dispatches programme Britain's Secret Slaves highlighted how domestic workers are badly treated by wealthy employers

The Liberal Democrat MP added: ''I am extremely shocked by these comments.

'Anybody who is working on policy on a council like Brent needs to be sensitive to the issues.

'The council should ask whether it is appropriate to employ a consultant who holds such views to work in policy for the most ethnically diverse borough in the country.

'The Dispatches programme raised the very serious issue of abuse of domestic servants in this country.'

Brent Council said it is considering what action to take..

Miss Mohamed told the Telegraph: 'I sincerely apologise if I offended anybody with my remarks.

'I realise that my remarks were insensitive and did, at the time, apologise for causing offence.

'However, I would like to say again that I am very sorry for the flippant way I commented on a serious issue.'



Miss Mohamed has continued to tweet about the furore over her comments, writing: 'I have become a hate figure.'

A reported 15,000 domestic workers flood annually into the UK with many paid less than £50 a week to work 20-hour days.

Aidan McQuade, director of charity Anti-Slavery International, said: 'Many instances of domestic servitude in this country are forced labour - a classification that includes retention of passports and wages, threat of denunciation and restriction of movement and isolation.'



Cllr Ann John, leader of Brent Council, said: 'I find it unacceptable she made a joke like that.

'I feel very strongly about this issue. It's a set of stupid remarks.'