Denis MacShane, who led the all-Party enquiry in anntisemitism, has criticised the President of Brazil for posing in photographs with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Labour Rotherham MP has spoken of his “shock” and “profound sadness” in an open letter to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In the letter, in which he refers to Ahmadinejad as President Lula’s “friend”, “chum” and “companero” Mr MacShane, the former minister for Latin America, said President Lula was an “inspiration” to trade unions around the world but that the move “shames” his life story.

He wrote: “Your new friend is an exterminationist who his called for the Jewish people who live in Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth.

“You new companero send rockets and bombs to terrorist Jew-killers in Hezbollah. He swaggers around the world threatening every democracy with the wrath of his hate of freedom.”

He ends the letter by pleading that President Lula “would once again become the Lula who inspired the fighters for democracy and social justice around the world”.