LONDON, Sept 16: Community groups in Britain have criticized the British Home Secretary, David Blunkett, for suggesting that immigrants abandon their mother tongue in their homes and speak English, instead.

In an essay for a book, ‘Reclaiming Britishness’, published on Sunday by the Foreign Policy Centre, Blunkett said that parents should speak English to their children to prevent “schizophrenic rifts” between generations.

The home secretary said children should be encouraged to talk with their mothers “in English as well as in their historic mother tongue”.

The Home Office defended Blunkett’s call for immigrants to speak English in their homes. But a spokesman for the Home Office tried to down play his comments by saying that Blunkett would “never tell people what to do in their own homes”.

But race and community groups are furious over the statement, asking the secretary to stay out of people’s private lives.

The acting chairwoman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Beverley Bernard, said: “The commission has always supported the view that proficiency in English is a springboard for future independence. This is as true for ethnic minorities as it is for white working-class people”.