EU referendum: Labour grandee David Blunkett attacks the 'Boris Broadcasting Corporation'

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett has attacked the BBC over its coverage of comments and speeches from bombastic Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson. The former Labour MP even suggested that the impartial programmer should be rebranded as the 'Boris Broadcasting Corporation'.

"The buffoonery of Boris Johnson is no substitute for rational thought or an assessment of, and counterweight to, the reality of power," Blunkett declared. "I have over recent weeks come to wonder whether the BBC should be renamed the 'Boris Broadcasting Corporation'.

"Not a day goes by without some mention made by our main broadcaster of the increasingly irrational and almost irrelevant remarks of this newly converted politician, to leaving the European Union."

The comments were part of Blunkett's speech for Labour In for Britain, the party's pro-EU campaign.

The former cabinet minister argued that staying inside the 28-nation bloc would help the UK counter terrorism threats better and co-operation would be economically beneficial.

"In a world of global markets, people movements and global blocks, we need each other more than ever before. In terms of finance and business, in terms of the nation state and democratic politics, the challenge in front of us is blindingly obvious. To have power, we need to be able to work together," Blunkett added.

"To gain that power, you need critical mass. The capacity and the clout go with scale, and with understanding the nature of globalisation.

"That is why the strength, the innovation, and the talent present in the United Kingdom provides leverage beyond our capacity to deliver in isolation.

"By joining instead with others of like minds who want a better Europe, a less bureaucratic and corporatist Europe, but who also understand that we can only achieve this and our wider goals, by working together, a vote to stay in on 23 June is self-evidently the right thing for our future."

Meanwhile, Johnson has continued his pro-Brexit tour of the UK. The latest stop has seen the former Mayor of London visit the Hampshire town of Winchester. The EU referendum campaign has seen the top Conservative pitted against the pro-EU Prime Minister David Cameron, leading to claims of a Tory civil war and "psychodrama".

The latest telephone opinion poll from Survation, of more than 1,000 people on 24 May, put remain six points ahead of leave (44% versus 38%), with 18% of respondents undecided.

The BBC and Vote Leave had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.