Labour antisemitism means that British Jews are actively preparing to leave the country if Jeremy Corbyn gets “anywhere near the levers of power” in next month’s general election, the Conservative Party’s chairman has claimed.

James Cleverly said Jewish friends of his — many of them entrepreneurs and business people — had told him “they would be out of here” because they feared the consequences of a victory for the Labour leader.

His comments came in the week a general election was called for December 12 and Jonathan Romain, the leading Reform rabbi, urged his congregants to vote tactically against Mr Corbyn.

“We’re not just talking about big businesses [that will leave],” Mr Cleverly told the Sunday Telegraph.

“Some of those people are entrepreneurs and business people, the kind of people that fill the coffers of the chancellor, and employee tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people in the UK.

“But, frankly, a number of them are Jewish friends of mine who have just said that if he got anywhere near the levers of power, they would be out of here.  I never thought in my lifetime that I would hear that said.

“And this isn’t just a throwaway comment, these are people who said they have actually looked at going to family in other parts of the world. That is a really horrible thing to hear. And part of my job is to make sure that that doesn’t happen.”

Jewish people in Britain have spoken for many months about the prospect of leaving the country in the event of a Labour victory.

In September, the then-Labour MP Louise Ellman told the JC she not only understood but shared the fears felt by British Jews.

“For what does it say about Jeremy Corbyn that he looks at a grossly antisemitic mural and apparently cannot see how grotesque and offensive it is?”

Dame Louise, the Liverpool Riverside MP, has since left the party and is not standing in next month’s election.