Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, accused ministerial colleague Margaret Hodge of using the language of the of the far-right British National Party last night.

Ms Hodge, trade and industry minister, wrote in an article last weekend that indigenous British families should be given housing priority over immigrants.

Ms Hodge argued that Britons felt a “legitimate sense of entitlement” to housing, and said that she wanted to reassess the priorities for social housing. She suggested more weight should be given to length of residence, citizenship and national insurance contributions.

“The problem with that is that’s the kind of language of the BNP, and it’s grist to the mill of the BNP, particularly as there is no evidence that there’s any problem in social housing caused by immigration, none whatsoever,” Mr Johnson, the deputy Labour leadership candidate, said on the BBC’s Question Time programme.

Jon Cruddas, another candidate for the Labour deputy leadership, echoed Mr Johnson’s comments, and criticised Ms Hodge for getting her facts wrong and helping the BNP to racialise housing policy.

“Housing is allocated according to need, and it is disingenuous for Margaret Hodge to suggest otherwise,” he said. “The problem is lack of housing supply and it’s a shame she wasn’t so vocal in the campaign for the building of more council housing.”

Ms Hodge was first accused of legitimising the BNP last year. She claimed that up to eight out of ten working-class white families in her East London constituency of Barking were tempted to vote for the right wing party in the May election.

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, was unequivocal in his attack on her assertions: “Margaret Hodge’s suggestion that housing allocation should be based not on need but factors like length of residence would be catastrophic for community relations.

“Politicians in general, and Government ministers in particular, should get their facts right before making statements with the potential to do great harm to the good community relations on which the prosperity of all Londoners depends.”

The Government has already announced a new points-based immigration policy, which is likely to cut long-term settlement by unskilled migrants in the UK.

Ms Hodge set out her proposals in a Sunday newspaper last weekend. "We should look at policies where the legitimate sense of entitlement felt by the indigenous family overrides the legitimate need demonstrated by the new migrants," she wrote in The Observer.

"We should also look at drawing up different rules based on, for instance, length of residence, citizenship or national insurance contributions, which carry more weight in a transparent points system used to decide who is entitled to access social housing."

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