Boris Johnson, a leadership candidate for Britain's Conservative Party, attends a hustings event in Wyboston, Britain July 13, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

LONDON (Reuters) - The frontrunner to become Britain’s next prime minister, Boris Johnson, said on Monday that the leader of the main opposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, was guilty of anti-Semitism.

“I think by condoning anti-Semitism the way he does, I’m afraid he’s effectively culpable of that vice,” Johnson told a leadership debate organised by the Sun newspaper and TalkRadio.

The Labour Party has battled accusations of anti-Semitism since 2016 and Corbyn - a veteran campaigner for Palestinian rights - as well as other senior party officials have been accused of failing to take decisive action to deal with it.

“Jeremy Corbyn is implacably opposed to anti-Semitism in all its forms and has campaigned against it throughout his life,” a Labour Party spokesperson said, calling Johnson’s comments “baseless”.