Chief Rabbi Mirvis warns Labour antisemitism inquiry must not be a ‘sticking plaster’

But he warned: “If this inquiry turns out to be no more than a sticking plaster, designed to placate and diffuse until after the elections this week, the problem will surely get worse and not better.”

Writing in the Telegraph, Rabbi Mirvis said it was “astonishing” that those on the hard-left of British politics were “presuming to define the relationship between Judaism and Zionism despite themselves being neither Jews nor Zionists.

“The likes of Ken Livingstone and Malia Bouattia claim that Zionism is separate from Judaism as a faith; that it is purely political; that it is expansionist, colonialist and imperialist.

“It is unclear why these people feel qualified to provide such an analysis of one of the axioms of Jewish belief. But let me be very clear. Their claims are a fiction. They are a wilful distortion of a noble and integral part of Judaism.”

Directly addressing those who had sought to “redefine…vilify…and delegitimise” Zionism, Rabbi Mirvis wrote: “Be under no illusions – you are deeply insulting not only the Jewish community but countless others who instinctively reject the politics of distortion and demonisation.

“To those who so eagerly reach for a vicious Holocaust reference in order to exact the maximum amount of pain and offence upon ‘Zionists’, I say: You are spreading that ancient and insidious virus of antisemitism.”

But the Chief Rabbi said he was also optimistic about the future and had drawn “a great deal of comfort from the very strong response that this sorry affair has elicited”.