George Osborne has described antisemitism in the Labour Party as a “cancer”.

Speaking at a charity dinner in central London last night, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the Labour Party had lost its way.

In conversation with Lord Finkelstein, associate editor of the Times, he said there was a “genuine problem” with antisemitism in the Labour Party, adding: “I am yet to see any evidence that they have got a really convincing answer to it.”

He added: “You see it at every level: the MPs, the councillors, the activists and so on. We should work with those in the Labour Party that are trying to fight this and stop it.

“I don’t take any great pleasure from this at all. This is a cancer that needs to be dealt with.”

Mr Osborne, the Tory MP for Tatton, went on to say that the issue was “born of a lot of the combinations [Labour] have made along the way, with people whose views they should have never have accommodated.”

He added: “The Labour Party has a long, proud tradition rooted in the Jewish community. Some of the greatest Labour politicians were from the Jewish community. Indeed, when I was a child, probably the majority of Jewish people voted Labour. That has changed pretty dramatically. I think the Labour Party has forgotten those roots and that connection with the Jewish community.”

He said Labour had surged to “the far-left,” adding: “They have abandoned the middle ground of British politics, much to the dismay of many of their members of Parliament. It’s a very different party to what it was five years ago.

“The membership of the Labour Party, in the grassroots, is very far to the left. The idea that ‘it’s just Jeremy Corbyn’, I think, is a mistake. There’s a reason why he was elected.”

Mr Osborne, who flew back from Northern Ireland to attend the World Jewish Relief fundraiser on Monday, urged more than 300 diners to exercise their voting rights at EU Referendum on June 23.

Noting the origins of WJR, which was set up in 1933 to support Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Germany, Mr Osborne, who has backed the Prime Minister’s call to remain in the European Union, said: “I will make this observation, conscious of the origins of this charity.

“Think, who in the world, wants us to leave: they are not our friends. Think who wants us to stay: every single one of our allies, every single country that stood by us in our most difficult years.

“They have said to us: ‘We need you, we want you to stay’.”

Asked whether it was a “mistake” to hold the EU referendum in the first place, the Chancellor replied: “It is never a mistake, in a democracy, to ask the people what they think and to make sure the public are engaged in great sovereign acts like this referendum.

“I think what would be a mistake for anyone to sit it out or think they don’t need to vote.

“I doubt anyone in this room is going to take part in a civic decision that is more important that this one – no general election, no other election, is like this one. This is a very big decision.”