Jeremy Corbyn described Israel’s “control of US foreign policy” and “Israel’s government” as having “unbelievably high levels of influence…in the higher echelons of parts of the media” in a 2009 article, it has been revealed.

Mr Corbyn, then a backbench MP, used his column in the Morning Star in January 2009 to criticise the BBC for deciding not to broadcast a Disaster Emergency Committee appeal for Gaza, saying many people believed the organisation was “out of step with humanity”.

As uncovered by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin, Mr Corbyn wrotethat the BBC’s decision showed “the contempt the BBC directors appear to have for the views of their license payers and the unbelievably high levels of influence that that Israel’s government appears to have in the upper echelon of parts of the media.”

By contrast, Mr Corbyn praised Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera and Iran's state-controlled broadcaster Press TV, for their “power… to robustly question the representatives of the Israeli government as well as the US and other opinion formers around the world.”

The Islington North MP subsequently wrote that it was “unclear…how far the Obama administration is prepared to stand up to Israel and limit its control of US foreign policy.”

People on Twitter said that what Mr Corbyn wrote was a “direct contravention of the IHRA guidelines as Labour adopted them.”

A spokesperson for the Labour Party said: "The suggestion that Jeremy was talking about Jewish people, when he commented on the greater level of media influence the Israeli government has than the Palestinian leadership, is entirely false, and itself relies on a damaging antisemitic trope."