A leading historian has warned against the moral relativism promoted at some universities after a Marxist student claimed on the BBC that communism only failed in the Soviet Union because it did not have the “chance to develop”.

Fiona Lali, president of the Marxist society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) at the University of London, was invited on to Radio 4’s Today programme, after research indicated that young people regard capitalism as a greater threat than communism.

Ms Lali with Jeremy Corbyn

Twenty-four per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds view big businesses as a serious danger to the world, compared with 9 per cent who are worried about communism, a ComRes survey found. Among those aged 25 to 34, 6 per cent list communism as a