Emily Thornberry has attempted to defend Jeremy Corbyn’s remarks about “British Zionists” and their failure to grasp “English irony” insisting the Labour leader was merely referring to a “particular group of people”.

In an interview on BBC 2’s new politics show on Monday, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary insisted: “When I first heard what is was Jeremy had said in an interview three or four years ago and I just heard those few clips in isolation, I was very worried – and I was distressed.

“But then I looked at it in full and I looked at the context it had been said – was referring to a particular group of people who were taking literally what somebody representing the Palestinians had said."

When presenter Jo Coburn suggested Mr Corbyn was responsible for having “racialised the issue” in his 2013 speech at a 2013 Palestinian Return Centre event, Ms Thornberry said: “My reading is that he was referring to a particular group of people who were Zionists...

"They were taking umbrage at what this guy has said at a previous meeting.  Anyway, the point is he (Jeremy Corbyn) regrets saying it in the way he does.

“I think the words Zionism has changed over the years and is now being used as term of abuse which Shami Charkrabarti identified in her report. I do not think he would be expressing himself in that way today.”

Earlier, Ms Thornberry claimed to have been a long-term supporter of Labour adopting the full IHRA definition of antisemitism – and called for the party’s ruling national executive committee to adopt it when it meets on Tuesday.

She told the Financial Times: “My view is that we should adopt the full definition with the examples . . . I understand why people looked at some of the examples and thought, ‘Hang on a minute, how can we implement this?

“Might it mean that people can’t criticise the state of Israel?’ My interpretation is that clearly, we can. I’ve read a number of legal advices that say that we can.”

Asked by Ms Corburn why it had taken “until last night in your case” for senior party figures to call for the adoption of the full IHRA definition, Ms Thornberry said: “I’ve been saying it, for example I was up in Edinburgh a few ago – I’ve been talking about this.”

Asked why Labour had attempted to come up with their own code on antisemitism, she said: “We went in fast... Because we were rushing at it we didn’t consult properly.

"If we had consulted properly and looked at some of the legal advices there really wouldn’t have been a problem.”