Phillips: Worried on race

Britain's race watchdog has appealed for a calm debate on immigration as the general election looms.

Professing to be the most worried man in the country, Trevor Phillips issues a strong warning to party leaders - who he says  must "reduce the temperature".

"We want politicians to calm down, take a step back and realise what their words - and the tone of their words - may do to people on the ground," he told the Times newspaper.

Phillips calls on the parties to step back from enflamed debates on race and immigration.

"I am probably the most worried person in the country at the moment," he said.

"I don't like what I'm hearing. I think it is becoming ugly and I think it is because people are having debates about perfectly legitimate subjects but maybe doing it in ways which create tensions.

"If someone gets badly hurt during this campaign, all those people using this sort of language will have to ask themselves if they contributed to it."

But the watchdog chief, himself a former Labour politician, denied that he was targeting the Conservatives.

"Everybody is entitled to talk about immigration or Gypsy camps and no subject should be off limits. It is a question of how they go about it. We want grown-up leadership," he added.