In an interview with Sky News to publicise his forthcoming memoir, comic Alexei Sayle dismissed the ongoing criticism of antisemitic elements within the Labour left as "fabricated".

WATCH-So much wrong with this interview with 'comedian' Alexei Sayle on Sky News starting with 'ALL the accusations of A/S are FABRICATED attacks on Jeremy Corbyn' and worse!@GnasherJew @labourAgainstAS @JewishLabour pic.twitter.com/ExD7n39e6k

— SussexFriendsIsrael (@SussexFriends) October 27, 2017

Mr Sayle was himself a staunch supporter of the left wing of Labour during the 1980s but has in recent years become less vocal about his politics.

He is however on record as saying that he “still would adhere to those philosophical and economic ideas of Marxism that I got when I was 16... it seems to me as true now as it did then".

In a comment piece written for the Guardian in 2016 he said that while he was perfectly happy to mock New Labour in his act, now that Jeremy Corbyn was about to "reform the party in his own image – ascetic, socialist, kindly and ethical" he would stop making jokes about it.