Ukip leader Nigel Farage has blamed Muslims for what he called “a sharp rise in antisemitism” in Britain and Europe.

Speaking during his weekly phone-in show on London’s LBC Radio, Mr Farage told a caller from Highgate: “I have detected quite a sharp rise in antisemitism, not just in this country, but across the rest of Europe too.

“What’s fuelling it is that there are many more Muslim voices, and some of those Muslim voices are deeply, deeply critical of Israel. In fact, some of them even question the right of Israel to exist as a nation.”

He went on to say that the situation was inevitable “when you have a society that’s got a lot more different groups in it, you’re going to get these kind of conflicts".

Mr Farage also noted: “It’s quite interesting because there aren’t actually that many Jews in the country - there’s only a few hundred thousand.

“It just shows you what an extraordinary group of people they are, the success they’ve achieved, whether it’s media or politics.”

At this point the show’s host Nick Ferrari interjected with the suggestion of “banking”, to which Mr Farage responded: “Anything.”

Mr Farage, who attended a Ukip Friends of Israel event in Westminster on Tuesday, also criticised politicians for not standing up for Jews because of Israel.

Accusing the government of being “always frightened to say something for fear of causing offence to someone else,” he said Israel and Jews “often get conflated, and that’s really the point.

“I feel that we’re not being strong enough at times in defending the rights of the Jewish people to have a homeland because we worry that we’ll offend another group of people in the country.”