Lord Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi, has said Ken Livingstone should be sacked from the Labour Party following his comments about Hitler and Zionism.

Speaking in Israel, Lord Sacks called for a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism.

Asked by the Jerusalem Post whether Mr Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, should be fired by the party, the rabbi replied: “Of course.”

Lord Sacks said: “There’s no question there has to be zero tolerance, otherwise who knows what we’re getting back into. There has to be zero tolerance, otherwise Europe will cease to be Europe.

“We have to establish certain principles of public discourse, and if we don’t, then Europe and Britain among them will move slowly into the politics of hate.

“And the politics of hate are bad for everyone, not just the people who are hated, but for the people doing the hating.”

Mr Livingstone was suspended by Labour earlier this month, pending an inquiry, after a series of interviews in which he claimed that Adolf Hitler supported Zionism.

Lord Sacks will be awarded an honorary doctorate by the Tel Aviv University on Thursday.