The British politician who stormed out of a university debate after discovering that his opponent was Israeli has said he would sit down with an anti-Zionist historian.

George Galloway, Respect MP for Bradford West, refused even to engage in a discussion with Oxford student Eylon Aslan-Levy on Wednesday night because the student has dual citizenship.

But asked on Twitter by Anglo-Israeli businessman Dan Abrahams whether he would sit with him, Mr Galloway responded that it depended "on whether you support the racist state of Israel or not".

He added: "I sit with Prof Ilan Pappe happily."

Mr Galloway also rejected accusations of antisemitism. He wrote: "It has nothing to do with Judaism. I debate with Jews all the time. Not all Jews are Zionists. Most Zionists are not Jews."

Prof Pappe, an academic based at Exeter University, is a revisionist historian who supports the one-state solution.