'Israel is an apartheid state': Calls for Labour to sack speechwriter for anti-Israel tweets

Four years earlier he accused Israel of “killing the two state solution”.

On Saturday evening Conservative MP Andrew Percy called for Mr MacDonald to be sacked, branding his anti-Israel tweets “disgusting slurs”.

Mr Percy, who is Jewish, said: “Jeremy Corbyn should reconsider his decision to employ this man.’ Jeremy Corbyn promised a ‘kinder politics’ but he continues to turn a blind eye to people around him who do and say things which are unacceptable in public life.

“These tweets show yet again that Labour have a systematic problem with anti-Semitic racism which needs to be addressed urgently.”

The affair has reignited a debate within the party over whether criticism of the state of Israel – and the policies of its government – constitutes antisemitism.