George Galloway has said that Israel could have supplied the gas used in what was almost certainly a chemical weapons attack in Damascus last week that left hundreds dead.

The Respect party MP, who was speaking in a video posted last week by Iranian media outlet Press TV, claimed that al-Qaeda had carried out the attack, and suggested that Israel had given the terror group the toxic gas.

Mr Galloway appeared to be defending Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He said: "If there has been a use of chemical weapons – it was al-Qaeda who used the chemical weapons.

“Who gave al-Qaeda the chemical weapons? Here's my theory. Israel gave them the chemical weapons.”