They now see almost everyone as against them - they see successful people from their own communities as pulling the ladder up

Sir Herman Ouseley

He compared the plight of the majority of black South Africans who had not benefited economically from the end of apartheid with a minority of black people who had done well from the redistribution.

In an interview with The Independent newspaper, Mr Hain said: "I think we are seeing the same thing in Britain.

"There is an opening divide between a black professional class, which is doing extremely well compared with previous generations, [and] a vast pool of ethnic minority citizens who are doing extremely badly in comparison not just with mainstream society but with their better-off brothers and sisters."

But some ethnic minority groups are flourishing in Britain, according to report published by the University of Warwick's centre for research in ethnic relations.

Indian and Chinese groups are generally flourishing at school and in the workplace while people of Pakistani, Afro-Caribbean and Bangladeshi origin are facing more of a struggle both during education and then in employment.

Black men more likely to be unemployed

According to the study - commissioned by the Department for Education and Employment - black men are three times more likely to be unemployed.

The former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, Sir Herman Ouseley, told the paper: "They now see almost everyone as against them. They see successful people from their own communities as pulling the ladder up.

"The danger is if people who have reached the middle tier actually start to do that."

The report's author - research fellow David Owen - said the study showed that economic improvement was no longer merely an issue of "white advantage and minority disadvantage".

"In Birmingham, the most disadvantaged educationally are Afro-Caribbean boys and the most advantaged are Indians, both boys and girls."

By way of contrast, a large proportion of black girls achieve good grades at GCSE.