Blunkett attacks BBC over asylum coverage

A new row erupted between the Government and the BBC today as Home Secretary David Blunkett accused the corporation of adopting a "Powellite anti-immigration agenda".

Raising the spectre of Enoch Powell, Mr Blunkett attacked last night's BBC1 Panorama special, The Asylum Game, saying it "plumbed new depths" and swallowed wholesale claims of the "Right-wing anti-immigration pressure group, Migration Watch".

In today's Guardian, he says Panorama's claim that two million extra homes will be needed over 20 years was based on "ridiculous" assumptions.

The BBC, already in a row with the Government over Iraq, said its series of "asylum day" programmes aimed to separate fact from fiction and see both sides of the debate.