Democrats cannot bring themselves to side with Israel against Iran’s authoritarian regime and pursuit of nuclear weapons, according to a new poll shared with The Telegraph.

The polling found that a little more than a third sided with Israel in the Middle East, with only eight per cent saying Iran.

But some 52 per cent of Democrats in the survey of 1039 registered voters said they could not pick sides between a Jewish democracy or an Islamic theocracy.

The issue illustrates how the party is struggling for clear leadership in the wake of their presidential election defeat, with their base shifting far to the left, said James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners, which conducted the poll.

“It doesn’t take much to shock me any more but I was genuinely gobsmacked by this finding,” he said.

“We know that Democrats have tended to oppose arming Israel, and have expressed concern about Israel’s foreign policy. But this poll steps into a totally different order of magnitude: Democrat voters are so coloured by their view of Israel, that they cannot bring themselves to wholly condemn Iran. Instead they opt to sit on the fence.”