Blunkett warns of attacks on migrants

David Blunkett today said he feared people worried about terrorism would take the law into their own hands and target asylum seekers.

The Home Secretary said genuine concerns about crime and terror could erupt into a hunt for scapegoats.

"I'm worried about tension spilling over into the disintegration of community relations and social cohesion," he said. "I'm worried about people taking the law into their own hands."

Mr Blunkett has voiced alarm before, including a warning to Tony Blair that war with Iraq could breed tensions between communities in Britain. But his comments today, in the New Statesman magazine, are the clearest signal yet of a concern shared by other ministers.

British society, he warns , is now "like a coiled spring".

He stresses he wants the debate in the open and for people's fears to be " genuinely reflected".

Other ministers have privately voiced fears that controversy over asylum seekers - coupled with the lack of effective Tory opposition - could see a rise in support for extreme Right parties.

The Home Secretary takes a swipe at the leader of the Finsbury Park mosque, Sheikh Abu Hamza, describing him as "a big mouth".

He continues: "The big mouths are dangerous and damaging to race relations, but the most dangerous ones [are those] you cannot see and you do not hear."