Diplomatic Correspondent Paul Adams asked a group of black migrants: 'Are you going back to the jungle?' - a reference to the illegal camp outside Calais

A senior BBC reporter triggered a furious response today after asking a group of black refugees: 'Are you going back to the Jungle?'

Viewers accused Diplomatic Correspondent Paul Adams of making a racist slur - not realising that the 'Jungle' is the real name of the huge migrant camp just outside Calais.

Mr Adams has spent the past two nights with migrants desperately trying to get to the Channel Tunnel and then on Britain.

After a group were repelled by French police at the fences around the Eurotunnel terminal the journalist asked them: 'Are you going back to the Jungle or will you try again?'

Shocked viewers, many of them watching early this morning on BBC Breakfast appeared to misunderstand the reference.

Ashleigh Lianne ‏tweeted: 'Will you be trying again or going back to the jungle' a BBC reporter says to a Black man in Calais.. Wow'

Mark Davies wrote: Did I just hear a reporter on BBC ask a migrant if he was going to go back to the jungle?

Ellie Bath said: 'Can't believe the bbc reporter got away with saying to a couple of black men 'you going back to the jungle now'

While Graham Shaw tweeted: BBC reporter asked a black man if he was going back to the jungle?! just because he got flung out of Calais train station!'

‏@PalmersGun tweeted: 'BBC reporter asking captured immigrants if they are going to try again or go back to the jungle! I know it's what they call the camp but..'

Moment: Mr Adams, who has spent the past two nights shadowing migrants trying to get to Britain, was heard asking this man about the 'Jungle', which caused dismay

David Cameron was criticised for his language last night after he said the crisis at Calais has been triggered by a ‘swarm’ of migrants amid a ferocious row with Labour.

A string of senior Labour politicians claimed they were outraged by the ‘dog-whistle’ remarks and demanded they be withdrawn.

But Tory MPs said the controversy over the use of a single word showed just how detached Labour had become from the concerns of ordinary voters. They also pointed out that Labour had done much to create the Calais crisis by creating the impression that Britain was a ‘soft touch’.

Mr Cameron spoke out early yesterday morning after another night of chaos at the Channel Tunnel, as hundreds of migrants tried to storm security fences.

He told ITV News: ‘I accept that, because you have got a swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean, seeking a better life, wanting to come to Britain because Britain has got jobs, it’s got a growing economy, it’s an incredible place to live.

‘But we need to protect our borders.’

Jungle: This is the illegal camp on the edge of Calais where up to 5,000 migrants are living as they try to get to Britain

Several Labour senior figures attacked the PM, who was speaking on an official visit to Vietnam. Acting leader Harriet Harman said Mr Cameron should remember he was talking about ‘people, not insects’.

There are now 5,000 migrants in Calais, many living in ‘The Jungle’ makeshift camp. Their numbers have doubled since December and thousands each night are trying to storm the freight trains heading for the UK.

Permanent structures including a new shower block being built in the illegal Calais camp.

The wooden buildings are being constructed by Solidarity International, one of four humanitarian groups involved in a relief effort.

They believe that the so-called ‘Jungle’ – an encampment set up on sand dunes some two miles from Calais port – is currently too basic.