Blunkett lambasts 'whining maniacs' in Bradford riots

David Blunkett provoked uproar yesterday by describing those jailed for rioting in Bradford last summer as "maniacs" who were "whining" about their sentences after they "burnt down their own businesses".

The Home Secretary set about the "bleeding heart liberals" who questioned the severity of the punishments and criticised the Government's other crime policies. He also criticised the BBC for promoting fear of crime and mocked the actresses Liz Hurley and Joan Collins for saying they felt safer in New York than in London.

Mr Blunkett made his comments in his home city of Sheffield during a speech to business leaders. He referred to the riots in Bradford "where, of course, the maniacs who were engaging in this are now whining about sentences they have been given.

"The police have done a really good job in following this through and at last the courts are handing out sentences that are a genuine reprisal but also a message to the community," he said.

The Home Secretary continued: "For every sentence, for every tough new law, for every sensible measure, there's some bleeding heart liberals who are there wanting to get them off, get them out and reduce their sentence." Returning to the Bradford riots, Mr Blunkett added: "These maniacs actually burnt down their own businesses, their own job opportunities. They discouraged investment in their areas."

The comments outraged race equality campaigners. Sabby Dhalu, co-ordinator of the National Assembly Against Racism, said the Home Secretary had been "grossly irresponsible".

Ms Dhalu accused Mr Blunkett of ignoring the involvement of far-right activists in the disturbances and said: "To suggest that the Asian communities were burning down their own businesses is just ridiculous."

The riots last summer caused damage estimated at tens of millions of pounds and sparked what became Britain's biggest criminal investigation. Judges at Bradford Crown Court have handed down dozens of lengthy sentences in a series of court cases, with some convicted rioters being jailed for up to eight and a half years. Some have received sentences of five years for stone-throwing.

The Home Secretary also attacked media reporting of crime. He said: "The more you get crimes reported, the more reported crime goes up, the more I get slagged off by the all-knowing, less-understanding national press. I suspect we're going to get a dose of this in two weeks' time with the BBC's Crime Day – a whole day of frightening everybody to death about crime."

Mr Blunkett criticised what he described as "a built-in failure mechanism in the psyche of British people", which he said branded people and initiatives as failures before they had had a chance to achieve anything.

He added: "New York is not safer than London, despite recent publicity by Joan Collins and Liz Hurley.

"Liz Hurley wanted a policeman in every coffee house and that gives the game away in terms of her perception of where the problem really lies."