WATCH Paxman steps in as row between Ukip chief and ex-Labour minister gets 'personal' #CarryGobySeanKellz #FutureGroupNG via @myentertain9jar

NEWSNIGHT presenter Jeremy Paxman stopped an increasingly bitter row between a top Ukip official and Labour's former immigration minister last night amid fears the debate was becoming “personal”.

Jeremy Paxman, centre, with Patrick O'Flynn and Barbara Roche[BBC]

I think we'll stop this before it gets personal.

Jeremy Paxman

Ukip's director of communications Patrick O'Flynn told ex-Labour MP Barbara Roche she represented the "Westminster political class" which had alienated millions of voters, during a debate on the BBC2 programme last night.

Ms Roche accused Mr O'Flynn, who was chief political commentator for the Daily Express before joining Ukip earlier this year, of also being part of that "class" as he had worked as "a lobby correspondent for 20 years".

Mr O'Flynn, who is standing as an MEP candidate for Ukip in the May's European election, replied by saying: "You're a lovely person but with enemies like you, who needs friends?"

Mr Paxman then leapt in to bring the discussion to a halt as the pair stared each other down, saying: "I think we'll stop this before it gets personal."

The Ukip advert which has provoked controversy [PA]

Before the discussion ended, Ms Roche, who served as Asylum and Immigration Minister from 1999 to 2001 and now campaigns for the group Migration Matters, attacked a Ukip campaign poster which claims 26million Europeans are heading to the UK to get jobs.

She said: "We have a campaign in which if we were talking about black people or Asian people people we would be up in arms, but it's ok to talk about people from Europe - 26 million of them apparently - coming over here looking for jobs.

"If you substituted for the word Europe, ‘people from Africa’ or ‘people from Asia’ are coming here to look for work, everybody would say they [Ukip] were absolute racists."

Mr O'Flynn denied the posters were racist, and went on to say that an increase in Romanians in UK had led to an "over-representation" in some crimes.

Ukip director of communications Patrick O'Flynn [BBC]

In response to a question from Ms Roche about whether Mr O’Flynn would be happy to live next to a Romanian family, the Ukip spokesman said: "What we know about the Romanian influx so far is there's an over-representation in certain sorts of crime and anti-social behaviour for instance cash-point fraud, for instance nuisance begging.”

When Ms Roche then interrupted to ask whether that meant he was painting a “whole country” as criminals, Mr O’Flynn said: “You have this amazing thing of putting words in my mouth.”

He added: "There are many Romanians who work extremely hard, and Romanians coming to live in your street, fine, once you get to know them.

"If it's Romanians running a cash-point skimming gang, then yeah, you've got every right to be concerned and sustain that concern."