Nick Griffin, the ex-leader of the far-right British National Party, was among a delegation to meet with a senior official from the proscribed terror group Hezbollah, the JC can reveal.

Mr Griffin was photographed with a delegation from the right-wing European parliamentary group Alliance for Freedom and Peace (AFP) at a meeting with Hezbollah foreign affairs chief Ammar Al-Moussawi in Beirut on Sunday.

During their visit to Lebanon, the delegation also visited the memorial garden in Dahieh, Beirut, placed a wreath on the graves of Hezbollah "martyrs" and "expressed support for Hezbollah and “its fight against Israel, terrorism, and imperialism”.

According to a report on Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project (MEMRI)  the group  expressed support for Hezbollah and “its fight against Israel, terrorism, and imperialism.”

Former Italian MEP Robert Fiore, who was also part of the delegation, later said: "It has been an honour to meet today the representative of Hezbollah, Mr. Ammar Al-Moussawi.

“We expressed the European support for Hezbollah and the Lebanese government in their efforts towards peace and in the conflict with Israel.

“Everyone must know that there are millions of Europeans who completely share your aspirations for peace and are your partners in your struggle with the Zionist trends."

Last month, Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced he had moved to proscribe Hezbollah in its entirity “to protect the British people.”

But in a Commons vote Jeremy Corbyn failed to issue a three-line whip to force Labour MPs to back the move – and also issued a statement questioning the decision to proscribe the group suggesting it was driven by political motives.

Mr Corbyn had once famously described Hezbollah as his “friends” before he became Labour leader.

Mr Griffin wrote articles for the BNP magazine Spearhead in the 1990s that denied the Holocaust happened and set out conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the media.

He then tried to distance himself, and the BNP, from at least some of these attitudes in an attempt to make the group more electable.

But after he was expelled from the BNP and lost his seat in the European Parliament in 2014, Mr Griffin has regularly resorted to attacks on alleged Zionist power and control.

Embarrassingly for Mr Corbyn, Mr Griffin also backed the Labour leader over remarks he made about Zionists not understanding "English irony".