The BBC is embroiled in a major new bias row after its Radio 4 Thought for the Day segment personally attacked Robert Jenrick over his illegal migrant warning. The leading segment on the Today programme hit out at the Shadow Justice Secretary after he said he fears for his daughters’ safety because of the flood of undocumented young males entering Britain.

Academic Dr Krish Kandiah was given free rein to accuse Mr Jenrick of “xenophobia”, and branded his fears “irrational”. The BBC failed to offer any balance to the highly political rant, during which Mr Kandiah fumed: “A front page story in the Mail on Sunday quoted shadow justice minister Robert Jenrick talking about his fears for his young daughters. He said: ‘I certainly don’t want my children to share a neighbourhood with men from backwards countries who broke into Britain illegally and about whom we know next to nothing.’"

“These words echo a fear many have absorbed. Fear of the stranger. The technical name for this is xenophobia. All phobias are, by definition, irrational.

"Nevertheless, they have a huge impact. It is understandable that many people are scared by the unknown, especially if they’ve been told that illegality and unfairness are part of the story. However, over the past year, xenophobia has fuelled angry protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, deepening divisions in our communities.”

He went on to claim: “The majority of people arriving in small boats are found to be genuinely fleeing war, persecution, and famine”.

A furious Tory source has now hit back, telling the Express: “Thought for the Day has long descended into a bunch of nobodies wittering on about their mad hat socialist ideas.

“If the BBC are not prepared to broadcast serious religious voices, they should at least ensure the second-rate ones they do find are balanced.”

Writing in last week’s Mail on Sunday, Mr Jenrick said he feared British women and girls are being put at risk by illegal migrants with “medieval attitudes”.

He wrote: “I certainly don’t want my children to share a neighbourhood with men from backward countries who broke into Britain illegally, and about whom we know next to nothing.

“And I don’t want anyone else’s family to have this forced on them either.”

His comments came amid another outbreak of protests outside illegal migrant hotels, being led by women’s safety campaigners.

A number of high-profile incidents of alleged sexual assault, harassment and rape by those who entered Britain illegally have made headlines in recent months.

These included the case of two Afghan asylum seekers being charged over the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.

This week, a press conference of Reform UK’s leading female figureheads branded Britain no longer a “safe haven” for women and girls because of the small boats crisis.

Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin said illegal migrants from "predominantly Muslim" countries put women "at risk of sexual assault".The MP for Runcorn and Helsby drew attention to asylum seekers arriving on small boats who were originally from Afghanistan.

Ms Pochin said: "The inconvenient truth for the Left is that the culture of men from predominantly Muslim countries like Afghanistan is one that holds a medieval view of women's rights. It is fundamentally alien to the centuries of progress made by our own Western culture and attitudes.”