'Cold war' fear of watchdog chief

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Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), believes the policy failures risk engendering racism among millions of educated professionals.

Mr Phillips will set out his concerns in an address to mark the 40th anniversary of Enoch Powell's notorious "rivers of blood" speech - in which the Tory frontbencher warned of disastrous social consequences if immigration levels were not reduced.

While Mr Phillips is expected to stress that the dire predictions have not come true and immigration has not been too high, he will say the influx has had worrying effects.

"Powell predicted 'hot' conflict and violence. However, we have seen the emergence of a kind of cold war in some parts of the country, where very separate communities exist side by side... with poor communication across racial or religious lines," Mr Phillips will say.

"In essence, Powell so discredited any talk of planning or control that it gave rise to a migration policy in which government knew too little about what was going on. Ironically, Powellism and the weakening of control it engendered may have led Britain to admitting more immigrants rather than fewer."

Mr Phillips is expected to warn ministers that they are boosting anti-immigration parties such as the BNP by failing to respond to reasonable concerns from large sections of the "settled" population.

He will say: "For every professional woman who is able to go out to work because she has a Polish nanny, there is a young mother who watches her child struggle in a classroom where a harassed teacher faces too many children with too many languages between them."

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "Mr Phillips raises a brave and timely warning and points out the consequences of a disastrous loss of immigration controls.

"It has had adverse consequences for public services, housing and community relations. Whilst managed immigration is for the benefit of the country, uncontrolled immigration can lead to serious problems for the whole nation."