The Birkenhead-born boss of the BBC has been attacked by a senior Conservative peer for the "incomprehensible" suggestion it should remain neutral between Islamic State and the West.

Lord Cormack hit out at comments made by director general Lord Hall of Birkenhead in response to calls for the broadcaster to stop using the term Islamic State (IS) to describe the jihadist group.

And he compared the decision to the idea of the BBC remaining neutral when the UK was faced with the threat of Nazi Germany.

Tory Rehman Chishti and more than 120 other MPs had written to Tony Hall to ask that the corporation use the term "Daesh" in reports about the group's activities as it was an acronym with ''negative connotations.''

But in a response to Mr Chishti, Lord Hall said using Daesh instead of Islamic State ''would not preserve the BBC's impartiality''.

The debate surrounding the use of IS has gathered pace in recent weeks and Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested the media follow the Government by referring to the jihadists as Isis or Isil.

According to the Times, Lord Hall said Daesh was a ''pejorative name coined in Arabic by its enemies", including supporters of Syrian president Bashar Assad.

"Unfortunately this term may give the impression of support for those who coined it and that would not preserve the BBC's impartiality," he said.

He added that the broadcaster used caveats such as ''so-called Islamic State'' or ''Islamic State group" and he doubted whether anyone listening to BBC reports "could be in any doubt what kind of an organisation Islamic State is".

Lord Cormack, who was a Tory MP for 40 years, asked Home Office minister Lord Bates whether he shared his "sense of incredulity at the reported comments" of Lord Hall that the "BBC should remain neutral between Islamic State and the West".

He demanded: "Is this not an utterly incomprehensible statement? Did the BBC remain neutral when we were facing the Nazi threat and is not this threat, in its way, as vicious and as evil?"

Lord Bates, responding at question time in the House of Lords, said he was on "sensitive ground" talking about the BBC.

But he added: "If Isil are to be defeated it requires everyone to speak up for what British values are and to stand firm for them and to speak out against those who seek to undermine them."