JEREMY CORBYN will today face claims he is “instinctively hostile” to Jewish communities and has repeatedly failed to tackle anti-Semitism.

A letter due to be delivered from Jewish leaders will also accuse the Labour leader of consistently siding with anti-Semites rather than Jews, and of serving as a figurehead to others who push offensive material and display an “obsessive hatred of Israel”.

The letter, which is to be presented at a Westminster meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), follows a row over his support in 2012 for the creator of an East London mural that displayed anti-Semitic themes.

The mural, entitled Freedom Of Humanity, depicted a group of apparently Jewish businessmen playing Monopoly, with the board perched on the backs of naked workers.

Mr Corbyn has expressed his “sincere regret” at failing to scrutinise the mural on a wall near Brick Lane. However the issue has caused a rift among Labour MPs.

One Labour MP, Angela Smith, has demanded Mr Corbyn attend the PLP meeting to provide a further explanation for his 2012 comments.

Labour and Co-operative MP Luciana Berger, head of Jewish Labour, has said the response by the leader’s office was “wholly inadequate” and failed to understand “on any level the hurt and anguish felt about anti-Semitism”.

In their letter, leaders of British Jewry say they have “had enough of hearing that Jeremy Corbyn ‘opposes anti-semitism’ whilst the mainstream majority of British Jews, and their concerns, are ignored by him and those he leads”.

It adds: “There is a repeated institutional failure to properly address Jewish concerns and to tackle anti-Semitism.

“He issues empty statements about opposing anti-Semitism, but does nothing to understand or address it.

“We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far left world view that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities.”

The letter claims Mr Corbyn is “repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly anti-Semitic views” adding: “Routine statements against anti-Semitism ‘and all forms of racism’ get nowhere near dealing with the problem.”

And speaking on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC1, shadow culture secretary Tom Watson apologised over the issue and branded the image a “horrible anti-Semitic mural that was rightly taken down”.

Mr Watson said: “I’m very, very sorry that people feel hurt by this and that’s why I think it’s right that Jeremy has expressed regret for it. He said he didn’t see the mural, he was talking about free expression and I think now that he has seen the mural, he’s right to say it was right not just to be removed but that he expresses deep regret for the offence caused by the mural.

“Nobody in the Labour Party should have the slightest hesitation in condemning this mural, it’s anti-Semitic, it’s horrible and I want Jewish members as well as every other member of the Labour Party to feel welcome in our party.

“I think it’s time we said that enough is enough on these anti-Semitic stories and we are taking measures to do that.”

Last night, Mr Corbyn issued a statement, saying: “Labour is an anti-racist party and I utterly condemn anti-Semitism, which is why as leader of the Labour Party I want to be clear that I will not tolerate any form of anti-Semitism that exists in and around our movement.”

He added: “We recognise anti-Semitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour Party and the rest of the country. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused.

“Our party has deep roots in the Jewish community and is actively engaged with Jewish organisations across the country. We are campaigning to increase support and confidence in Labour among Jewish people in the UK.”

He added: “Labour will work to unite communities to achieve social justice in our society.”

“I know that to do so, we must demonstrate our total commitment to excising pockets of antisemitism that exist in and around our party.

“I will be meeting representatives from the Jewish community over the coming days, weeks and months to rebuild that confidence in Labour as a party which gives effective voice to Jewish concerns and is implacably opposed to antisemitism in all its forms.

“Labour will work to unite communities to achieve social justice in our society.”

Asked if he agreed with Labour MP Chris Williamson that there had been a “weaponising” of anitisemitism, Mr Watson replied: “No, I don’t, I don’t agree with that at all.

“But what I do think is that we’ve got to work harder to stamp out antisemitism and that requires our internal procedures to be faster in the way they operate, and deeper.”

He added: “It’s time we stamped out antisemitism and we’re doing so. We’ve increased our resources to investigate these individual cases, but we’re a member-led party, we need to make sure that we investigate these things thoroughly to make sure justice is done.”