In his speech during the House of Commons debate on antisemitism yesterday, Robert Halfon, the Jewish Conservative MP for Harlow, told colleagues how, while at a street stall in his constituency, “completely unexpectedly, a man who I know to be from the left came at me, screaming ‘go back to Israel’.”

He said such acts were “unthinkable just a few years ago” but were becoming “increasingly commonplace”.

“There appears to be, in some sections of the left, an accepted belief that either Jews are all Israeli settlers, or they’re very rich, or they’re part of the capitalist establishment,” he said.

“And these claims are then linked to even more sinister conspiracy theories.”

He described how “the air has grown tighter. When you feel very hot and undo a button on your shirt, and your mouth goes dry. It is still a great country, it is still a wonderful place for Jewish people, but things have changed.”