Professor David Miller was accused of using “classic anti-Jewish” tropes by former Conservative cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg in a fiery interview on right-wing news channel GB News.

The former professor of sociology at Bristol University was being interviewed on Rees-Mogg’s show after an employment tribunal found that Miller’s “anti-Zionist” views were “worthy of respect in a democratic society”.

The tribunal published a 120-page after its judgement in February that found Miller was unfairly dismissed from his job at the university.

Rees-Mogg challenged Miller over his publicly stated views: “when you said in August last year that ‘Judeophobia barely exists these days’ and ‘the facts 1) Jews are not discriminated against 2) They are over represented in Europe North America and Latin America in positions of cultural economic and political power 3) They are therefore in a position to discriminate against actually marginalised groups’ that wasn't classic antisemitic commentary on Twitter?”, he asked and added that “Jews over-represented in positions of power is a classic antisemitic conspiracy theory against the Jews.”

Miller responded: “It is well known that Jews are the most advantaged section of the population economically speaking and of course are overrepresented in positions of power in Parliament, in journalism in finance and many other places; whether you think that's antisemitic or not, it is true.”

He doubled down on his claims later in the interview and appeared to deny that Jews faced discrimination in society, to which the former Tory MP said “just because they're overrepresented doesn't mean they're not discriminated against”.

Rees-Mogg even suggested that “they could be even more overrepresented if they weren't discriminated against” which Miller laughed at and said “you can make that argument and that is an argument which is made by people who believe in race science, I don't particularly believe in that stuff”, before asserting “it's not just a question of the status of Jews in the society, it's a question of how that links to the genocide in Gaza … the fact is that every Zionist organisation in this country is engaged in supporting the genocide in Gaza in one way or another and that's a problem.”

He later went on to say that a reason “Israel” was able to control British politics was because of the over-representation of Jewish billionaires: “Jews are over represented and the Jews who are over represented in the senior levels of business and politics tend to be Zionist, there's hardly any anti-Zionists who are Jewish billionaires for example, and so that that that actually gives them an advantage in discriminating against others” such as British Muslims.

Mogg then terminated the interview early, after around seven minutes of discussion and said “I think you have, by your own words, made quite clear what your position is and have linked Zionism to Judaism and that must be fundamentally antisemitic. Your right to free speech must be upheld, but by your own words I think you've made your position very, very clear”.

Earlier in the interview, Rees-Mogg, the former minister for Brexit opportunities, also confronted Miller over claims he made about Bristol’s J-Soc. By saying that it was a “member of the World Zionist Organization”, the former Conservative Minister accused Miller of “going back to the classic antisemitism of saying the Jews are organised globally and they are using this for reasons of power and that ties in with your Tweet of last August. So you use Zionism as cover for antisemitism”, something which the professor denied, saying: “they're not a member of any world Jewish organisation they're a member of a World Zionist Organization which of course does what it says in the tin, it promotes Zionism.”

In 2021, Miller defended his comments that students at the J-Soc were being used as “political pawns by a violent, racist foreign regime” and told the JC that “The ‘Jewish student groups’ you refer to are political lobby groups overseen by the Union of Jewish Students, which is constitutionally bound to promoting Israel … There is a real question of abuse here — of Jewish students on British campuses being used as political pawns by a violent, racist foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing.”

While still employed by Bristol University, Miller claimed that “Even chicken soup is a Zionist plot” and slammed an interfaith event between Jews and Muslims at the East London Mosque.

Since his dismissal by the university, he has gone on to present a TV show Palestine Declassified on Iranian regime mouthpiece Press TV along with former Labour MP Chris Williamson who was suspended by the Labour Party before the 2019 general election after claiming that the party was “too apologetic” over antisemitism in the party.