Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls says he is “not embarrassed” by the student-era pictures of him in a Nazi uniform that appeared in the press in 2008.

In an interview with the Huffington Post he said: “Of course I’m not embarrassed by it. If I had the choice again, would I do it? No.”

Mr Balls explained that he wore the uniform at an end-of-year dinner at Keble College, Oxford, as a forfeit for allowing through rent increases as President of Keble’s Junior Common Room. “I went along with it for a laugh,” he said. “In retrospect, I wouldn’t do it again.”

Mr Balls is regarded as a consistent supporter of Israel. He speaks frequently at LFI events, and announced the LFI’s UK-Israel Economic Dialogue at its annual lunch in July, where he began his address with the word “Chaverim”.