David Blunkett has dismissed criticism of his call for the families of immigrants to speak more English at home.

The home secretary said the latest row was a "silly controversy" and said his point had not been properly understood by his critics.

His latest comments came after Labour's Leicester East MP and former minister, Keith Vaz, said that many Asian families speak better English at home than Blunkett himself.

Blunkett insisted he "was making a very simple point, which is if as many as a third of those from Asian backgrounds speak no English at home that has an impact."

He told the BBC that it was a problem for both youngsters "and the terrible conflict that exists between one culture and another and, of course, on the matriarchs, the mother and grandmother who often do not speak English at all," he told the BBC.

"I didn't say that we should dictate to anyone what they do in their own home.

"I actually said 'as well as the mother tongue', so that we have the English culture and English spoken but we have alongside it the mother tongue and the mother culture. Now that seems to be eminently reasonable."

On Monday, Vaz had said the claim that immigrants did not speak enough English was one of the "silliest remarks" ever made by a home secretary.

Not only do local Asians speak English at home, says the MP, but the bluntly spoken Yorkshireman could take lessons in his own "mother tongue" from them.

"No Asian family in Leicester does not speak English at home. In many cases they speak it better than Mr Blunkett himself," says the former Europe minister.

Vaz believes that spending a night with a Leicester Asian family would show Blunkett "how wrong he is".

"I am issuing an invitation to people in my constituency to offer Mr Blunkett a night in Leicester," he told the BBC.

"After Bend it Like Beckham we will have Spend it with Blunkett."

The MP - who himself arrived in Britain as a nine-year old immigrant - dismisses the concerns that attachment to languages of origin is a barrier to assimilation.

Based on his own experience, argues Vaz, most newcomer families speak English at home and all wanted to learn the language as quickly as possible.

"One night in Leicester with an Asian family and he will see how wrong he is," he said.

"I hope David will take up this opportunity - it could even improve his English."

The MP accused Blunkett of being worse than his Tory predecessors and making Asians a "cheap target".

"If this was a Conservative home secretary he would have been asked to apologise by now. The immigrant community has become a cheap target, Vaz said.