Islam is incompatible with Italy’s values and freedoms, the leader of the hard-Right League party warned on Thursday, as he stepped up aggressive campaigning ahead of the country’s impending election.

Matteo Salvini, who holds an unlikely ambition to become prime minister after elections next month, said Italy should not go down the same path as the UK where, he claimed, Islamist courts have superseded the secular, common law justice system.

“I don’t want to end up like Great Britain, which has Islamic courts instead of British courts,” he said.

He appeared to be referring to sharia councils, tribunals that seek to apply Islamic laws to everything from financial disputes to marital conflicts.

They are unregulated, dominated by men and have been accused of being discriminatory towards Muslim women.

Sharia councils have been operating in the UK, in parallel to the British legal system, since the early 1980s.

The informal councils have no legal powers and they cannot impose any penalties.

Mr Salvini made the remarks in Umbria, throwing his support behind efforts by local League activists to block the construction of an Islamic cultural centre in the town of Umbertide.