One of Labour’s leading supporters of Israel has been sacked from Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet as part of a New Year reshuffle.

Michael Dugher, a Labour Friends of Israel vice-chair, said he had been removed as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on Tuesday morning.

In a tweet, the Barnsley East MP said: “Just been sacked by Jeremy Corbyn. I wished him a happy new year.”

Mr Dugher had previously warned against a “revenge reshuffle” aimed at removing critics of Mr Corbyn’s leadership.

Following last May’s general election, Mr Dugher claimed a combination of “neglect” and “incompetence” had led Labour to “mishandle” its relationship with the Jewish community.

He attacked the party’s handling of the Gaza conflict in 2014 and labelled Ed Miliband’s decision to whip his MPs to support the motion on Palestinian statehood as “catastrophic”.

Mr Dugher was scathing in his assessment of why so many Jews voted Conservative.

“I don’t accept a deliberate decision was taken to ignore the Jewish community because we were trying to seek somehow more important votes elsewhere, but I think that either through neglect or, frankly, in some instances incompetence, we mishandled our relationship with the Jewish community.”

He added: “Too many people in the Jewish community felt that Labour wasn’t their party any more and that’s why I think there is an urgent task to rebuild our bridges with the Jewish community.”

During last summer’s leadership contest Mr Dugher ran the campaign of Andy Burnham.

There have been claims that Mr Corbyn’s reshuffle would also see Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn replaced or dropped from the shadow cabinet altogether. Last month Mr Benn made a short visit to Israel as part of his role.

Fellow shadow cabinet member Luciana Berger, a former LFI director, posted a tweet in support of Mr Dugher following his removal.

"Sorry @MichaelDugher leaving the shadow cabinet. One of @UKLabour's best campaigners who's worked hard to widen access to the arts & sport," she wrote.