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The BBC film aimed at GCSE pupils claimed Britain was “multicultural long before curry and carnival” and there isn’t such a thing as “pure Briton”. The assumptions made in the video, which had been in circulation since May, sparked a backlash. Migration Watch UK launched a scathing complaint with the think-tank arguing the documentary failed to treat the delicate subject with care and objectivity. In the animated video, part of a series called Don't Hate the Debate, the voiceover said: “Think immigration is a recent thing? Think again. “Because you see, you got the Celts, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings, the Normans, the Flemish, the Irish, black Britons and Jewish people.

“Yep, we were multicultural long before curry and carnival - it's in our DNA.” The video then seemed to issue a thinly-veiled attack on some right-wing parties calling for measures to curb immigration. The speaker said: “There is no such thing as pure Briton. “Despite what some flag wielders would have you believe, the average Briton is only 36 percent Anglo-Saxon.” This claim was attacked by Migration Watch, which said: “The average British person's DNA is at least 90 per cent European.

The BBC was forced to withdraw a documentary on immigration following accusation it was biased

“The impact of modern inflows of hundreds of thousands a year is entirely different from the fusing of a comparatively small number from Northern European tribes in the centuries preceding Norman times.“ Lord Green of Deddington, founding chairman of Migration Watch, argued that the discussion between young people sparked by the video was “shallow, unbalanced and unrepresentative”. And he wrote to BBC chairman Sir David Clementi saying: “Most people in the UK are not opposed to immigration per se, but they are concerned, we think rightly, about its present scale. “Yet the overall impression of the video is that anyone who questions its current scale is unreasonable and prejudiced.

The BBC was attacked for the video by Migration Watch UK

The BBC film was aimed at GCSE pupils aged 14-16