Labour MP Ronald Campbell has said “the Jewish issue” is being used “as a big stick to beat Corbyn and get rid of him”.

Speaking to Mark Mardell for The World This Weekend programme on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday, Mr Campbell also castigated Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge for having secretly recorded her meeting with Jeremy Corbyn to discuss Labour's antisemitism crisis.

On the tape, leaked to the Sunday Times, Mr Corbyn could be heard admitting that evidence of antisemitism within Labour had been "mislaid or ignored" by party staff.

Mr Campbell, who represents Blyth Valley in Northumberland, said: “It’s deplorable that someone goes to a private meeting with the leader and records a conversation. That’s just unacceptable.”

He added: “The people in the Parliamentary Labour Party are using the Jewish issue, the antisemitic issue, as a big stick to beat Corbyn and get rid of him. It’s as simple as that as far as I can see.

“I’ve been in the Labour Party more than 50 years and I’ve never heard anything like this before. Now I understand there’s a lot of people have come in to the party from the far-left and have these views. I would say to them, please leave, you’re not welcome in this party.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism, a racism monitoring group, said it “condemns Mr Campbell for his repulsive attempt to characterise Jews’ complaints about antisemitism in the Labour Party as some kind of political and media plot”.