Sajid Javid has refused seven times to condemn Boris Johnson’s use of the terms “bank robber” and “letterbox” to describe Muslim women who wear a burqa.

Speaking at a campaign event in Bolton on Tuesday, the Conservative chancellor was asked seven times whether he would use those terms to describe Muslim women and he declined to give a direct answer.

Johnson has refused to apologise for writing in a Telegraph column last year that Muslim women wearing burqas “look like letter boxes” and that it was “absolutely ridiculous” that anyone should choose to wear one.

On a day when the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, faced trenchant criticism for his party’s record on antisemitism, Javid was questioned about his own leader’s use of language on Muslims.

Asked directly whether he would use a term like “letterbox” or “bank robber” to describe a Muslim woman in a burqa, Javid said: “The prime minister himself has been asked that question a number of times and he explained why he used that language – it was to defend the rights of women, whether Muslim women or otherwise … so he’s explained that and given a perfectly valid explanation.”

He added that any hatred was “unacceptable” and that the Conservative party was “absolutely at one on that”.

Asked a second time whether he would use those terms, Javid said: “You talk about articles that the prime minister has written in the past. I think he’s given an explanation of that.”

Pressed a third time on the same question, after being told that Islamophobic incidents rose by 375% in the week after Johnson’s column according to the monitoring group Tell Mama, Javid again refused to directly answer.

He said: “All politicians will choose their own words when they’re explaining whatever is the point they’re trying to get across.

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“That particular article, the prime minister has explained what was the purpose of his article and how he was actually trying to defend the rights of women, in that case, to wear what they like.

“I think articles like that are best read in their entirety so people can understand the point being made rather than picking out certain words.”

Javid was asked a further four times whether he would use those terms and he refused to give a direct answer.

Javid was also asked whether he was disappointed that the Conservative party’s inquiry into Islamophobia – which he had pushed for – had been widened to include all forms of hatred.

He said: “I’m not disappointed. Nothing’s going to be watered down. We’re absolutely committed to doing everything we can, doing more, to root out any form of prejudice – there is no excuse for it – I am, the prime minister is. Nothing will be watered down.”

Javid, who served as home secretary before being promoted to chancellor in Johnson’s government, said Labour was one of the great political parties but that under Corbyn it had become “contaminated by the cancer of antisemitism, and that cancer begins at the very top”.