The Radio 4 guest who branded a senior Tory 'xenophobic' for comments about asylum-seekers has also accused actress Sydney Sweeney of 'flirting' with the Nazis' theories of eugenics.

Refugee charity boss Dr Krish Kandiah prompted fury after his Today programme criticism of last weekend's The Mail on Sunday front page in which Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said the asylum-seeker influx in small boats made him fear for his daughters' safety.

Now it has emerged that earlier this month Dr Kandiah attacked Ms Sweeney for boasting of her 'great jeans' in a clothing advert – saying she was 'backing' Nazi ideologies of racial superiority.

The BBC was forced to edit Dr Kandiah's Thought for the Day segment, and apologise to Mr Jenrick, after he said the Tory MP's language had fuelled protests outside hotels housing asylum-seekers.

Roger Mahony, Radio 4's Head of Editorial Standards, apologised to Mr Jenrick for some of the language and said two references to xenophobia would be edited from the programme on BBC Sounds.

But Mr Jenrick said a cursory look at Dr Kandiah's social media would have revealed his outlandish beliefs, including an attack on the Tories' Rwanda scheme for returning migrants as unChristian and his criticism of Ms Sweeney.

In her advert for American Eagle jeans, White Lotus actress Ms Sweeney, 27, says: 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.' 

A narrator then says: 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.' 

Dr Kandiah retorts on X: 'Why on the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War would you be flirting with a eugenics idea?

'Eighty years ago there was another mass movement in the world claiming the same. That was Nazism... we don't need superstars backing the eugenics movement.'

Mr Jenrick said: 'It's astonishing the BBC failed to conduct proper checks. A quick glance would have found that this individual recently accused Sydney Sweeney of eugenics for a jeans advert, for goodness sake.

'I have no idea how the editorial team at the BBC thought the remarks about me were balanced.

'It just shows how entrenched the pro-migration bias is at the BBC, despite the damage mass migration is causing and the immense frustration of most people in the country.'