Jeremy Corbyn has been slammed as xenophobic after a new video of him emerged in which he says Zionists “don't understand English irony” despite having lived in the country for a very long time.

He made the remark during a meeting of the Palestinian Return Centre in 2013 when talking about an earlier speech from Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian envoy to the UK.

As revealed by the Daily Mail, in the video Mr Corbyn is heard describing Mr Hassassian's speech as “incredibly powerful, passionate and effective about the history of Palestine and the rights of the Palestinian people.”

The future Labour leader continues: “This was dutifully recorded by the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience on that occasion, and then came up and berated him afterwards for what he had said.

“They clearly have two problems. One is that they don’t want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, don’t understand English irony.”

Gideon Falter, chair of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s xenophobic portrayal of ‘Zionists’ as foreign to Britain and recognisable by their ignorance and humourlessness is utterly shameful, even by his low standards.

“It is precisely this euphemistic use of the word ‘Zionist’ to refer to Jews and direct smears at us which used to be the preserve of antisemites amongst the aristocracy.

“It is plain that he is an antisemite… the great leaders of the Labour movement of old would be appalled.”

Mr Corbyn appeared at the 2013 meeting alongside Daud Abdullah, who supported a boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day, and Alison Weir, an American anti-Israel campaigner allegedly linked to White Supremacists.

A Labour spokesman said: "Jeremy Corbyn has a long and principled record of solidarity with the Palestinian people and engaging with actors in the conflict to support peace and justice in the Middle East. That is the right thing to do."

A spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn said:

"Jeremy is totally opposed to all forms of antisemitism and is determined to drive it out from society. At this event, he was referring to a group of pro-Israel activists misunderstanding and then criticising the Palestinian Ambassador for a speech at a separate event about the occupation of the West Bank."