Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell repeatedly invited the man at the centre of allegations concerning the antisemitic bullying of Labour MP Luciana Berger into his inner circle to discuss future policies.

Leaked emails and minutes from meetings seen by the JC confirm that Dr Alex Scott-Samuel, now chair of Liverpool Wavertree Labour Party, was among a select group of NHS campaigners favoured by the hard-left ally of Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr McDonnell sparked anger earlier this month when he suggested Wavertree MP Luciana Berger needed to quash Labour breakaway rumours in order for the deselection threats against her to go away.

Ms Berger dramatically announced she was quitting Labour along with six other MPs on Monday, with the Jewish MP claiming the party was now “institutionally antisemitic”.

At the weekend, Labour sources attempted to distance both Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell from the Wavertree CLP chair after the JC revealed he was a Rothschild conspiracy theorist who had appeared on current affairs shows promoted by David Icke.

But emails show how Mr McDonnell's office invited Dr Scott-Samuel to a meeting held at Westminster at which the shadow chancellor was "keen to hear any thoughts people have on Labour’s plans for the NHS going forwards and anything else relevant people want to pitch in".

The email sent by the office of John McDonnell was addressed to a small group of left-wing activists who met the shadow chancellor and the then shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander on April 13, 2016.

Dr Scott-Samuel later sent an email reflecting on the meeting, which took place in Committee Room 20 in Westminster, praising Mr McDonnell but suggesting Ms Alexander needed to “talk more to the kind of people at this meeting".

One month later, on May 10, Dr Scott-Samuel was again on the invite list for a Health Advisory Group meeting with Mr McDonnell where he was on a list of those approached for advice on "health and social policy".

Later that year, Mr McDonnell and Dr Scott-Samuel both delivered speeches at the Sussex Defend the NHS march in Brighton on September 24.

Writing for the Morning Star newspaper, Dr Scott-Samuel later praised the shadow chancellor's "fiery speech" which pledged to "not just halting but reversing all NHS privatisation."

When Dr Scott-Samuel stood for election on the Momentum executive, he wrote on February 1 2017 that he was now "an adviser to Labour's shadow health minister".

One Labour insider told the JC: "Conspiracy theories work just as well with NHS debate as they do with ideas about Jewish control and elites.

"With some of the hard-core NHS campaigners, among which Alex Scott-Samuel could be classed, anything not agreeable is just dismissed as another Blairite neo-liberal attempt to privatise the health service."

Labour insiders have told the JC that Jon Ashworth, Labour's current shadow secretary of state for health, subsequently attended meetings to which Dr Scott-Samuel was invited.

Dr Scott-Samuel - who is also chair of the Socialist Health Association (SHA) - was also given a seat at the centre of the stage ahead of Mr Corbyn's speech at last year's Labour  Party Conference in Liverpool.

Mr Corbyn was photographed warmly greeting Dr Scott-Samuel on stage ahead of the speech, flanked by shadow cabinet members Dawn Butler and Richard Burgon.

Martin Rathfelder, who was ousted by as SHA director only months after Dr Scott-Samuel became the group's chair, revealed that the Wavertree CLP chair had "ambitions to be a big man in Momentum" - the left-wing pro-Corbyn organisation.

He added that Dr Scott-Samuel’s "moment of glory" was to propose an NHS motion at last year's Labour conference.

"It was unanimously accepted - but some of it was b***ocks" actually," said Mr Rathfelder.

"And you may have noticed the only thing the Socialist Health Association tweets this days is pictures of Alex and Jeremy Corbyn."

At the weekend it emerged that Mr Corbyn had himself met Dr Scott-Samuel where discussion included the "victimisation of anti-Zionists".

Mr McDonnell's office refused to comment after the JC approached them regarding his meetings with Dr Scott-Samuel.