A government-funded community group is facing a complaint after it was used to host a talk by an anti-Zionist academic who was sacked after claiming Jewish students were “pawns” of the Israeli state.

David Miller, who was dismissed as a sociology lecturer by the University of Bristol for his outspoken views, was invited to give a speech in Hastings last month to discuss the “Zionist movement” in the UK.

The venue for his talk was owned by Hastings Commons, which regenerates run-down buildings in the East Sussex town for community use and says it received £636,000 in taxpayer funding from the Department for Housing, Levelling Up and Communities.

It also gets funding from the European Union, the National Lottery and Hastings Borough Council.

During his talk, organised by a local Palestine Solidarity Campaign group, Miller claimed charities in Britain were sending millions of pounds every year to help “colonise” Palestine.

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David Miller with his web of Jewish people and organisations (Photo: CU)

After the event, a former local Labour councillor complained to Hastings Commons saying Miller should not have been allowed to speak at one of its community venues.

Dany Louise asked if the group wanted to align itself “organisations that promote antisemitism” or “take a principled stand against it”.

In response, Hastings Commons’ chief executive, Dr  Jess Steele, said it took the question of “controversial hires… very seriously”. In a statement the group said: “this situation has brought to the forefront the need for a hire policy for people using our spaces… we carefully monitoring all of our hire bookings”.

Miller was sacked following an investigation into his claim Bristol University’s Jewish students were being used “as political pawns by a violent, racist foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing”. A university disciplinary hearing found he did not meet the standards of behaviour it expects from its staff. Miller, who has raised thousands of pounds for a legal fund to try to get his job back, has strenuously denied he is antisemitic and refused to be drawn on his appearance in Hastings.