Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has assured a high-powered audience of Jewish businessmen and women of his strong support for Israel.

He told 300 guests at the Jewish Care breakfast at London’s Mansion House on Monday: “Over the next couple of years, the state of Israel is going to face all sorts of challenges and I want you to know I am a good friend of Israel.”

On a visit to the country with Conservative Friends of Israel, he had seen “the miracle created in the desert there”.

He had high praise, too, for Jewish Care — a great example of “everything that is good about Britain” — and “of the contribution the Jewish community make to our country and our society”.