The Union of the Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, the main umbrella body for London’s Charedi communities, has criticised the attempt to persuade Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to pull out of next month’s Board of Deputies dinner.

Stamford-Hill activist Shraga Stern wrote to the Mayor to ask him to withdraw as guest speaker from the dinner, arguing that the Board of Deputies did not represent the Charedi community.

But the Union has moved to dissociate itself from Mr Stern’s efforts.

In a letter to Mr Khan, Rabbi Yaakov Conrad, registrar of the Union’s rabbinate, made clear that the request for the Mayor to reconsider his attendance at the dinner had been made “by a private individual without the approval of the UOHC rabbinate”.

Rabbi Dovid Frand, president of the Union, has also written to Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board, to say “the single individual purporting to speak for the Charedi community and seeking to disrupt the Mayor of London’s presence at the upcoming Board dinner does so without any authority”.

Rabbi Frand said, “We deeply regret the publicity that has been given to a single person’s actions and the chilul HaShem  [profanation of the Divine Name] this has created.”

Mr Stern has previously said that members of the Charedi community intend to stage a protest outside the dinner next month.