BBC asks author of controversial race report to assess migration coverage

People disembark at Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel after a small boat incident in the Channel. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

The BBC has asked an author of a controversial race report to assess whether the broadcaster is impartial in its coverage of people crossing the Channel in small boats.

Samir Shah, who contributed to the government’s Sewell report on race relations, has been asked to consider whether a broad range of viewpoints on migration are being reflected in all aspects of the BBC’s immigration coverage. He will co-author the assessment with Madeleine Sumption, the director of Oxford University’s Migration Observatory.