The government’s most senior Muslim minister has described how British Jews thanked him after he voiced his concerns about “dinner party antisemitism”.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid said he had initially received messages telling him he was “silly” for raising the issue, but that he had later been reassured by “unanimous” comments from the Jewish community backing him.

Mr Javid had told a Holocaust Educational Trust dinner last month that Jewish friends and colleagues repeatedly made him aware of experiences of thinly-veiled antisemitism.

But speaking to an audience of around 180 Community Security Trust supporters last Thursday, he said there had been a “wave of comment from Britain’s Jews.

“It was almost unanimous in saying ‘finally, someone’s put a name to what I’ve been experiencing for years’ – which rather proves my point”.

Mr Javid said internet trolls had labelled him an “Uncle Tom Zionist lapdog and traitor to Islam” after he repeatedly pledged to combat antisemitism and defended Israel.

“I’ve encountered racists throughout my working life, both in business and in politics. If you have a look online you’ll find no shortage of people saying that because my parents were born in Pakistan, I must be some kind of Homeland-style Al-Qaeda sleeper agent,” Mr Javid told the CST business lunch