Boris Johnson has compared antisemitism to a virus that flares up from time to time and said “we need to call it out”.

The former PM told GB News: “It’s very sad in the way that this march has to take place at all. But I'm afraid it does, because what we're doing here and the only thing we're really doing is showing solidarity with Jewish people and that's necessary.

“Because since 7 October, I'm afraid there's been a very peculiar response in many parts of the world, including, I'm sad to say, in London, and what we've seen is I'm afraid at the re-emergence of antisemitism and the failure to focus on the appalling terroristic acts of what they [Hamas] did on 7 October.

“And I just think we need to remember that and whatever the whatever the rights and wrongs of what Israel has done, or is doing, I think that the antisemitism that we've seen in some of these marches around Western Europe and further afield has really confirmed for me the absolute necessity, the human necessity, for Israel to exist. And that's basically why we're here."