Dissident MP Mr Paul Marsden quit Labour for the Liberal Democrats yesterday as the Blair government found itself engulfed in a race row of its own choosing.
Three key reports will today cite segregation, poor community leadership and alienation among unemployed white, black and Asian youths as major factors in this summer's race riots in Burnley, Bradford and Oldham.
At the same time the Home Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, will make a keynote speech on community self-help as a debate about race and citizenship rages across Britain.
Mr Blunkett sparked the debate with a demand that future immigrants do more to adopt British social values and "norms of acceptability", coupled with a strong indication that he intends to introduce "light touch" naturalisation tests early in the New Year .
The leader of the Transport and General Workers Union, Mr Bill Morris, appealed to Mr Blunkett to "just calm down" after his outspoken opposition to the practices of "forced marriages" and female circumcision. "We need to be clear we don't tolerate the intolerable under the guise of cultural difference," declared Mr Blunkett in a weekend interview in which he argued that "the word multiculturalism is now so degraded it is open to misinterpretation."
Mr Blunkett insisted a healthy society required immigrants to ensure future generations grew up with a sense of Britishness: "It is a two-way street. If we are going to have social cohesion we have got to develop a sense of identity and a sense of belonging."
Mr Shahid Malik, a member of Labour's National Executive Committee, said he was seeking a meeting with the Home Secretary to clarify his "disturbing remarks". Many fascists and racists, he said, would draw perverse comfort from Mr Blunkett's comments "and regard them as some sort of green light". However the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, backed Mr Blunkett's view that ethnic minority groups should make a greater effort to accommodate themselves to British national identity.
A spokesman for Mr Blair said the Home Secretary was "perfectly right" to open up the debate. The spokesman said: "It's a fact that three of our cities in the north of England went up in flames in the summer. There will be four reports published on this issue. We can't pretend this didn't happen and equally I don't think it's right to have some sort of self-imposed censorship on the grounds of political correctness because we are talking about race."
However, Labour MP Mohammed Sarwar questioned whether better spoken English would equal greater patriotism and less trouble. "All those people who were involved in riots in Burnley, Oldham and Bradford, those children are born and brought up here and speak perfect English . . . David could have chosen his words more carefully," he said.
The departing Mr Marsden, meanwhile, chose his words with evident care and intent as he accused Mr Blair of "behaving in an increasingly arrogant and presidential manner" and of leading a party which "believes in threats and intimidation to crush internal dissent." The Labour chairman Mr Charles Clarke denied there had been a campaign of deliberate vilification by Labour whips against Mr Marsden because of his opposition to the war in Afghanistan and to Mr Blunkett's emergency anti-terror Bill.
Mr Marsden widened his attack to cover Labour's alleged failure "to deliver on its promises about improving schools, hospitals pensions and the transport system." He said: "Like more and more people in this country I have lost confidence in the Labour government. I've had enough of their obsession with control freakery and spin, instead of policies which will really improve people's lives."