The government’s independent adviser on antisemitism has been criticised after launching an attack on a Conservative leadership candidate on X/Twitter.

Lord Mann, who was re-appointed to his position last month by the new Labour government, claimed that former business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch “had no interest whatsoever on antisemitism. It took many months to get to talk to her ( unlike every other Minister) and in the one eventually meeting she had no questions and no interest whatsoever.”

Mann’s comments were met with a wave of objections.

Conservative former justice minister Lord Wolfson, who is Jewish, replied: “That’s not my experience of her, nor that of many others. I appreciate that as you take the Labour whip, you might feel conflicted – hence this renewed, if rather curious, charge. But might I suggest that we focus on responding to our opponents, rather than attacking our friends?”

Lance Foreman, a former Brexit Party MEP who is also Jewish, said Mann’s claims were “Absolute nonsense.”

He added, “I have personally discussed this with her when she was minister. She was deeply involved in pushing the UK Israel trade deal.”

Before being appointed as an independent adviser to the government by then-Prime Minister Theresa May in 2019, John Mann was a Labour MP for Bassetlaw in the East Midlands between 2001-2019.

Kemi Badenoch is one of five other candidates vying to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party leader. Other candidates are former, former foreign secretary James Cleverly, former home office minister Robert Jenrick, former home secretary Priti Patel, former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride and former security minister Tom Tugendhat.

In a recent column in the Mail on Sunday she strongly criticised the behaviour of pro-Palestine demonstrators in the aftermath of October 7. She said, “our streets were soon filled with hordes of joyous people, not appalled at the acts of terror or demanding the perpetrators be brought to justice, but instead protesting against Jews under the guise of attacking Israel.”

During the general election campaign, Badenoch, who was raised in Nigeria, compared Hamas to Islamist group Boko Haram in an interview with the JC.

In 2023, after a meeting with the Chief Rabbi, the former equalities minister said “There is no place for antisemitism in Britain. We are committed to fully rooting out its tragic resurgence.”