Jeremy Corbyn was thought 'too stupid' to tackle antisemitism, Mail on Sunday claims

His body language, the paper reported, had been “hard to read. He was not especially animated. It may have been pensive, or bored and uninterested.”

The report of the meeting said Mr Corbyn had replied with “pre-prepared statements in a monotone. It suggested an emotional, political or intellectual inability to improvise suitable responses.

‘Most of the time he had his chin on his hand and a facial expression somewhere between scepticism, concentration and non-interest.”

While the Board and JLC had openly expressed their disappointment after the meeting, the criticisms reported by the Mail on Sunday in the summary are harsher.

But Mr Arkush, speaking on behalf of the JLC and CST today, said, “I don’t recognise the authenticity of the account and in particular the word ‘stupid’, which is not a word we would use.”

Mr Goldstein told the JC last month that Mr Corbyn had been “very engaged — but when it came to any of the specific asks that we as a community regard as a bare minimum for our protection, it met with [comments about] either behavioural process or ideological blockages.”

The Board and JLC have tabled a series of demands they expect the party to fulfil including the adoption of the full definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and clearing a backlog of disciplinary cases over alleged antisemitism.

The Board’s president-elect Marie van der Zyl has said a follow-up meeting is due to take place in July but the problem of antisemitism was not something likely to be resolved “overnight”.

A Labour spokesman said Mr Corbyn had made clear at the meeting "his absolute commitment to root out antisemitism" from the party, the Mail on Sunday reported.