Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has joked that he would "look forward to the day" when Britain's embassy in Israel will be "moved to Jerusalem" in a speech at a Westminster event.
Speaking at the Conservative Friends Of Israel parliamentary reception, the government minister added he was told by an ambassador when in the Jewish state that "we have a patch of land in Jerusalem that has been waiting for our embassy for some time."
Britain has so far not indicated it will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as the US did in 2018.
To loud applause at the packed gathering on Tuesday, Mr Jenrick added: "As Housing Secretary I don't like land-banking. I want us to build that embassy."
Taking a more serious tone, Mr Jenrick said that "defeating Jeremy Corbyn" at last month's election was "not the celing - that's the floor."
He told the gathering, which included Tory Party chairman James Cleverly, MPs Andrew Percy, Robert Halfon and host for the evening Bob Blackman, "It is not just Jeremy Corbyn who is antisemitic - many of those people continue."
Mr Jenrick singled out Labour leadership contender Sir Keir Starmer, accusing him of hypocrisy for now attempting to distance himself from the Labour leader despite having been "perfectly willing to take a ministerial car and serve in the cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn."
He added:"We will not forget the conduct of those people who now aspire to lead the Labour Party - and the Jewish community won't either."
Mr Jenrick also called Israel an "incredible achievement" and praised the "sheer resilience" of the Jewish people.
He also vowed to ensure the building of the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre next to Parliament and revealed he had met with Yad Vashem curators over the project while in Israel last week.
In a further barnstorming speech, Chancellor Sajid Javid declared the government's "unwavering support" for Israel and said "every minister thinks carefully about what they can do to strengthen that relationship."
Mr Javid then said that, when he was Home Secretary, he had told an "official" to "get stuffed" when they refused to back his now successful bid to proscribe the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
To loud cheers, he said he repeated the same "get stuffed" message when he was told he should not visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem during a visit to Israel because of "long-standing policy of over two-decades."
The Chancellor continued: "You know what? I told them to 'get stuffed' and I went anyway."
In a further attack he said he also delivered the same message to Mr Corbyn after he "sent me legal letter after legal letter" for branding him an antisemite on Twitter.
Mark Regev, the Israel's ambassador in the UK, told the event: "Something important is going to happen at the end of the week."
He added: "When this happens and Israel and the UK have signed a trade deal we will continue to see trade grow in this new reality."
Also delivering speeches at the event were Stephen Crabb, CFI's parliamentary chair and its honorary president Lord Polak.
