David Blunkett is under fire for branding opponents of tough crime crackdowns as "bleeding heart liberals".

The home secretary's parliamentary opposite numbers - both known for their liberalism - have hit back at the tough talking Yorkshireman's latest outburst.

Blunkett's contempt for "airy fairy" civil libertarians is well-recorded and affirms Labour's recent tradition of attacking "woolly", Hampstead-dwelling, liberal critics of its law and order policies.

Speaking on the home ground of his Sheffield Brightside constituency, the home secretary took to task protesters against harsh prison sentences handed out to Bradford rioters.

"The police have done a really good job and at least the courts are handing out sentences that are a genuine reprisal but also a message to the community."

"For every sentence, for every tough new law, there's some bleeding-heart liberals wanting to get them off, get them out and reduce their sentence," he told a meeting of business leaders.

Some of those convicted in last summer's race riots have received long custodial sentences.

Over 113 people, mainly Asian, have to date been convicted of taking part in disturbances which caused damage estimated at £27 million.

Some have appealed against the length of their jail terms.

And the fact that some who gave themselves up to police - following local community pressure - with no previous convictions and good character references are doing between four and six years in prison has sparked protests.

Blunkett described the rioters as "maniacs".

"These maniacs actually burnt down their own job opportunities. They discouraged investment in their areas," he said.

The home secretary also went public on his anger over media coverage of crime.

Accusing a planned BBC "Crime day" as being "a whole day of frightening everybody to death about crime", he blasted the press for its headlines on statistical rises in offending.

"The more you get crimes reported, the more reported crimes goes up, the more I get slagged off by the all-knowing, less-understanding national press."

Oliver Letwin, Blunkett's opposite number in the Commons, has recently been feted in liberal broadsheets for his consistent opposition to government legislation.

In another signal of a reversal in the traditional left/right polarity on law and order, he said the home secretary was "never happier" than when playing to populist gallery.

"The home secretary is never happier than when he is playing the hard man of the right. But the problem with his Christian Stalinism is that it doesn't work," he said.

The shadow home secretary believes the tough talk masks policy failure.

"The difficulty we all have with his initiatives is that they are not building up to a coherent programme that is likely to provide any long term reduction in crime in this country," he argues.

While Labour get it wrong, warns Letwin, the public and media will continue to feel unsafe.

And he defended recent celebrity comments about crime in London.

"Until we have such a programme, not only Liz Hurley, Joan Collins and the BBC, but also tens of millions of British citizens will go on being mistrustful of this government's ability to tackle crime in this country."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Simon Hughes, said "the home secretary has yet again displayed a mix of the sensible and the irrational".

"Of course rioting in the place you live in does not help either its reputation or its businesses, and those who create this disorder should be caught and punished," he said.

"But it is not for politicians to set sentences and there must be proper provision for appeal if the initial sentence is unfair."

Mark Littlewood, campaigns director of Liberty, accused the home secretary of playing the blame game.

"This is not the first time that New Labour have tried to pin their own failures on groups such as ourselves. In the midst of the debate over the passage of Britain's recent counter-terrorism measures, David Blunkett also vented his anger at 'airy fairy libertarians'," he told this website.

"It would be a welcome and refreshing change to see the government tackle the root causes of high crime in Britain.

"The 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' rhetoric may appeal to the tabloid press, but it's done nothing to reduce people's fear of becoming victims or reducing the number of people in our vastly expensive and full-to-bursting prisons."