Senior backbencher Anne Begg slammed Channel 4's Benefits Street yesterday for its "misrepresentation" of benefits claimants.

The work and pensions select committee chairwoman said the show's focus on one "petty criminal" skewed the protrayal of those receiving benefits.

"Part of the problem of projecting the extreme cases is that people then extrapolate that and say that applies to everybody who is on benefits," the Labour MP told Radio 4's Today programme.

"There wasn't anybody who was a typical benefit claimant featured at all. There was a huge imbalance."

A Channel 4 spokesman defended Benefits Street as "a sympathetic, humane and objective portrayal of how people are coping with continuing austerity and cuts in benefits."

Ms Begg pointed out just 3 per cent of Britain's welfare bill is spent on unemployed people, with most going to pensioners and low-paid workers.

"Pensioners are entitled to the payment that they get because they have paid into it and it is quite right that they do get those payments," she said.

House prices on the now notorious James Turner Street in Birmingham have reportedly plummeted since the show aired on Monday.

Birmingham Ladywood Labour MP Shabana Mahmood, who represents the residents featured in the show, said she was shocked it was "lacking in objectivity and indeed humanity."

She said: "It was clear from the first few seconds of the first show that the producers were primarily interested in creating entertainment out of poverty."