Jeremy Corbyn has spoken of the "incredibly rude people" he encountered as he passed through checkpoints on a  journey from the West Bank city of Jericho to Jerusalem.

But he said that during the same trip - which he said took six hours as a result of having to wait at the checkpoints – he and his wife Laura  Alvarez met "a lot of very nice Palestinian people being very kind to us on the way".

The ex-Labour leader told an online meeting of activists on Saturday that he had made a total of nine separate visits to "Israel and Palestine".

He said: "I have got vivid memories once of Laura and I trying to travel from Jericho to Jerusalem.

"Look at it on the map, it’s not very far.

"It took us six hours because we spent our whole time waiting at checkpoints where some incredibly rude people delayed us on our journey."

Mr Corbyn said the delay left him "irritated and annoyed" but added "we eventually reached our destination with a lot of very nice Palestinian people being very kind to us on the way".

The Islington North MP was the main speaker at a Labour Assembly event called to urge the party to speak out over the Israeli government’s annexation proposal for part of the West Bank.

It took place a day after he told Sir Keir Starmer to meet the Jewish Voice For Labour Group – set up to deny antisemitism in Labour – during online discussions with the left-wing Socialist Campaign Group over the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Speaking to around 700 activists on Saturday, he said he was "concerned" as to whether the party would "maintain" the position adopted at the 2018 conference in Liverpool for "full recognition of the state of Palestine".

In a message to new leader Sir Keir Starmer, he added: "I want our party to continue the policy we agreed at the Liverpool Conference" which he said was "historic".  

Mr Corbyn also spoke of what he said were  the "very large number of Palestinians living in refugee camps all over the region and indeed the diaspora all over the world".

He said he had met  refugees in Lebanon and Jordan and spoke of the "eternal hope they have that one day they can return home to their villages".

The former leader then spoke of the "imprisonment" of the population in Gaza which he said "leads to deep anger".

He cited a study which said 70 per cent of those living in Gaza were suffering from "mental stress because of the situation".

But he failed to mention or criticise the role Hamas has played in Gaza.

Mr Corbyn  famously gave a speech in 2009 in which he described Hamas and Hezbollah as his "friends". He married third wife, Laura, in 2013.