MP blames BBC for 'picking on Poles'

The BBC was today accused by an MP of fuelling racist attacks on Polish immigrants.

Tory MP Danny Kawczynski - himself of Polish extraction - said BBC coverage of immigration issues tended to concentrate on Poles even though most immigrants to the UK came from outside Europe.

The result, he said, was a rising number of assaults on Poles living in Britain.

He will highlight his concerns in the Commons later today when he introduces a Ten Minute Rule Bill calling for a bank holiday to mark the positive contribution that Poles have made to the UK since 1940.

"The liberal elite of the BBC are using the Poles as a cat's paw in a politically correct world to talk about immigration," he said on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"You won't do stories about more controversial immigrants - you always pick on Poles, and as a result of that there are increased attacks on Poles in this country.

"The liberal elite of the BBC, as I call them, they know that they have to talk about immigration now but rather than focus on all immigrants from all over the world they go for the soft touch, the white Christians from Poland, and I am sick a tired of it."