Jacqueline Walker, the vice-chair of the hard-left Momentum group loyal to Jeremy Corbyn, has claimed she has been the victim of a conspiracy.

Ms Walker, who was readmitted to the party after being suspended over allegations of making antisemitic comments, said: “There is a little bit of a conspiracy going on”.

Speaking at a meeting in Brighton last night, she told a 50-strong audience that she had been abroad when she was informed of her suspension last month.

She said: “Look at the date of the Jewish Chronicle when that came out. I was actually in Turkey.

“My letter suspending me was actually dated 4 May. The Jewish Chronicle published the story about me on 4 May.

“Now, you have to put two and two together. What you will know is that somebody in the [Labour] compliance unit, or around there, is leaking information out to the media.

"I want to ask, who that is, why they are doing it, and what the political purpose of that is?"

She defended her Facebook post, in which she claimed that Jews were the “chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade”.

She attacked the Israel Advocacy Movement for exposing her comments, but added: "I don’t want to spend too long talking about it because what I am not going to do is be trapped. This was a private Facebook discussion, this was a discussion between me and two friends. One was an Israeli Jew, a Zionist, and we have been friends for a long time, ever since we studied the African holocaust and the Jewish Holocaust together some years ago.”

Tony Greenstein, a Jewish anti-Zionist who was suspended by Labour in March, also claimed there was an effort to undermine the party.

He said: “I think there are quite powerful forces behind the campaign that we had. We have to be quite clear, whatever this campaign is about, it is not about antisemitism.

"The people who are doing it are people who support the state of Israel and Zionism."

He claimed: "I say there is no antisemitism problem in the Labour Party.”

Magician Ian Saville, of the Jewish Socialist Group, who set up the Jews for Jeremy group on Facebook in support of the Labour leader, also spoke at the event as a panelist.

Mr Saville, a supporter of the Jews for Justice for Palestinians group, claimed that allegations against Mr Corbyn, who described terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends”, were “ridiculous”.

“One of the weapons used against Jeremy, was an accusation of antisemitism,” he said, adding that there were “a number of different groups who have different reasons for attacking Jeremy.”

He claimed: “Those groups include: the Tory party; they include people outside the Labour party, like the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Chronicle, others who generally share a right-wing perspective on these matters; and those on the right within the Labour Party who are keen to change the leadership if possible before the next election.”

Mr Saville, a Labour activist for 40 years, added: “People who are part of the campaign are people who support Israel, They have very strong reasons to oppose Jeremy, who has supported Palestinian rights."

At the event, sheets of paper with lyrics to ‘The Red Flag’ were handed out. Panellist Louise Purbrick also called on attendees to attend a counter-protest against the anti-migrant South Coast Resistance demonstration, which is set to take place in Brighton on Saturday.

The meeting, at the Friends Meeting House, was organised by the Sussex Labour Representation Committee and Brighton & Hove’s Momentum branch.