The BBC is ‘institutionally anti-Semitic’ and has inflamed community tensions due to its ‘biased’ reporting of the Gaza conflict, a former attorney general said last night.

Sir Michael Ellis said the BBC’s impartiality had been brought into ‘disrepute’ over its coverage of Israel and Hamas.

Opening a Westminster Hall debate on the subject, he warned that the corporation’s reporting had ‘fuelled the appalling rise of anti-Semitism’ and ‘harmed diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the violence’.