Board of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush has called on Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn publicly to reject Hamas and Hizbollah if he is to gain the trust of British Jews.

Mr Arkush said Mr Corbyn’s comments about the terrorist groups were one of the causes of the community’s concerns about the likelihood of him becoming leader.

In recent weeks Mr Corbyn’s links to Holocaust deniers and antisemites have been the focus of intense media coverage.

His notorious remarks regarding Hamas and Hizbollah “friends” were the source of concern for 83 per cent of British Jews questioned by a JC poll last month.

Mr Arkush said he would seek an urgent meeting with Mr Corbyn if the frontrunner was successful in becoming Labour leader on September 12.

He said: “The Jewish community has some very deep concerns about Jeremy Corbyn’s reported links to a Holocaust denier and other individuals with antisemitic track records and about his hostile views on Israel. The community has also been very troubled by his seeming friendship towards Hamas and Hezbollah, which are both proscribed terrorist organisations. Any British politician in a senior capacity will not be taken seriously if he has any partiality towards terrorist bodies."

In order to “win back” support from the community, Mr Corbyn would need to give “clear, straight answers to straight questions and repudiating any sort of support for or links to antisemites, racists, terrorists bodies,” Mr Arkush said.