Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn may have his fans in the cultural world but theatre director Sir Nicholas Hytner is not one of them.

In an interview with The Times on Saturday, the self-confessed member of the “liberal elite” said, “If I were a dad, I would be a centrist dad. But I am just a director, a Jewish theatre director. I find him uncomfortable.”

If he ventured reasons for his discomfort, the paper did not print them.

His latest production, Young Marx, a comedy about by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman, has opened at London’s new theatre The Bridge.

The founder of Marxism was “ridiculous, disgraceful,” Sir Nicholas told The Times. “His behaviour to his family was in retrospect abysmal but he was also infinitely forgivable.”