Historian David Starkey, who lives in Barham, has sparked a furious public debate with comments he made in a television debate on the rioting and looting which swept the nation.

He told BBC's Newsnight show that white youths had been corrupted by a "violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture that has become the fashion".

Speaking to fellow guest Owen Jones, author of Chavs: the Demonisation of the Working Class, he went on: "What has happened is that the substantial section of the chavs that you wrote about have become black.

"The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion."

The Henry VIII expert was immediately attacked for his comments by his fellow panellists and then by hundreds of people who complained to the BBC.

Former News of the World editor Piers Morgan, now working for CNN in America, branded Dr Starkey a "racist idiot" while BBC business editor Robert Peston said he was guilty of "nasty ignorance".

Dr Starkey says he had been talking about gangster culture rather than skin colour.

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