Conspiracy theorist and far right commentator Candace Owens’s father-in-law, Lord Michael Farmer, has distanced himself from her views.

It comes as Owens, who married Farmer’s son, right-wing activist George Farmer in 2019, promoted an antisemitic blood libel on social media.

She made several comments in a live video and in social media posts about the case of a Jewish American man who was accused of raping a 13-year-old in 1913.

Leo Frank was a Jewish businessman, who was wrongly convicted of murder and lynched to death in the US state of Georgia.

Over the weekend Owens claimed that Frank deserved it and was part of a sadistic cult of Jews that perpetrate attacks on Christian children all over the world.

Owens has a long history of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories and was fired by The Daily Wire after she liked about a rabbi being “drunk on Christian blood again.”

Other antisemitic beliefs she has shared include the belief that Israel was involved in 9/11 and a secret group of Jews in Hollywood were involved in the death of Michael Jackson.

In July she was criticised for minimising the Holocaust after calling Mengele’s experiments on Auschwitz prisoners “bizarre propaganda”.

Speaking on an episode of The Candace Show entitled “Literally Hitler. Why can’t we talk about him?”, Owens described Holocaust education as “indoctrination.”

On Monday, Lord Farmer, who a member of the House of Lords, issued a lengthy statement on Twitter which addressed his daughter in laws extreme views.

On X/Twitter he wrote: “In view of public comments from a high-profile member of my family, I want to put my own views on antisemitism and Israel’s current military campaign in Gaza on public record.”

Farmer continued: “As a teenager, growing up in the wake of WW2, I became very aware of the cruelty meted out, before and during that conflict, against Jewish people – because they were Jewish. I found it impossible to comprehend how humans could, intentionally, be as cruel as possible to others. Whilst the general opinion in Britain was that it would never happen here, even then I thought ‘Really?’ and sensed it could happen anywhere. Such sadism lay dormant in the heart of everyone.

“Then, as a young man, I worked with many Jewish people in the city: the boss in one of my first jobs had come to Britain on a Kindertransport. I often experienced kindness and thoughtfulness from Jewish friends as well, at a time when I had few close relationships. The best man at my wedding and life-long friend was Jewish.

“I became a Christian in my mid-30s and became aware of the latent rebellion in my own heart against my creator. The bible says we all need a saviour because we all fall short of the goodness we aspire to and expect from others. We aspire to goodness because we are made in God’s image, and he is good. Jesus Christ is God’s son. He came into space and time as a Jewish man, he fulfilled Jewish law, his mother was Jewish, and his closest followers were ordinary Jewish men and women. He came to save us from the consequences of our rebellion.

I recently visited Israel and am a member of a UK-Israel support group but am very aware of the human heart and that no one group always acts with perfect intent and motivation. However, that does not mean there is never an aggressor who needs to be repelled.”

He added: “Israel is a rare example of a democracy in the Middle East, a liberal state governed by the rule of law. Of course, it has the right to defend its citizens when murderously attacked on its soil in one of the cruellest and most callous pogroms in history.

We cannot forget the large number of innocent hostages that were taken: many have died, and some are still missing. Israel faces an existential threat as Hamas, the terrorist organisation, has stated their intention to destroy it.”

Farmer said the “plight of civilians in Gaza is also utterly appalling but I see Israel has little option but to fight its enemy where it chooses to hide itself – in tunnels under key infrastructure and behind innocent civilians.”

He added: “A recent letter from international military leaders said that the Israel Defence Forces were acting in a highly accountable way in an extremely complex and difficult environment. We cannot forget that they have been forced to prosecute this war.

“To conclude, I should point out that I am the Christian Deputy Chair of the Council for Christians and Jews. This was founded in 1942 as a bulwark against antisemitism, and our monarch has always been its patron.”