Evan Davis attacked by David Davis

Evan Davis (pictured), one of the presenters of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, has been criticised for defending Alistair Darling's decision to reveal that the British economy is in dire straits. Davis used his personal BBC blog to speak up for the Chancellor's grim comments in the Guardian about the approaching recession being the worst for 60 years, arguing that Darling should not be vilified because he was just telling the truth.

Davis, who also presents BBC television's Dragon's Den, wrote: "In the face of all the evidence to the contrary, I think it would have been a mistake for Mr Darling to have stuck to his previous line that we are uniquely well placed to weather the storm. It seems unlikely he had special powers to move us all with his words of encouragement and positive thinking - if only he hadn't blown it.

"If political spin could move the economy so far, let’s improve the quality of our schools by demanding that education ministers tell us inner city schools are better than suburban ones. And maybe the Foreign Secretary could get Russia out of Georgia by telling us they are not there at all."

Davis went on: "It didn't work in the Soviet Union, and it won't work in a country with a free press either. Better that Mr Darling tells us what he thinks, than he tells us what we'd like to hear."

David Davis, the former Tory shadow Home Secretary, is predictably furious, believing his namesake’s outburst breached the terms of the BBC’s avowed aim of impartiality. "It is completely wrong for a BBC presenter to start defending Government actions when they have made mistakes. Why is a Labour Chancellor being helped out by a presenter of the BBC’s flagship political programme?"

Evan Davis is not the first Today presenter to be seen to overstep the neutrality mark. In 2005, his colleague Jim Naughtie was accused of Left-wing bias when he asked Labour MP Ed Balls: "If we win the election, does Gordon Brown want to remain Chancellor?"