Jeremy Corbyn today told of his 'pain' at being branded a racist over the anti-Semitism scandal.

The Labour leader was roundly condemned after MailOnline exclusively published a video in which he accused British Zionists of having 'no sense of English irony'.

Ex chief rabbi Lord Sacks accused Mr Corbyn of being an 'anti-Semite' and compared the remarks to Enoch Powell's notorious 'Rivers of Blood' speech.

Speaking to Holyrood magazine, the Labour leader told how he was left feeling upset after coming in for the criticism.

He said: 'I have found these accusations very painful because my whole life has been about opposing racism and I saw at first-hand in Jamaica the hurt inflicted by Powell's words.'

The Labour leader (pictured last week on a trip to a museum in Leicester) was roundly condemned after MailOnline exclusively published a video in which he accused British Zionists of having 'no sense of English irony'

Mr Corbyn added: 'I was in Jamaica when Enoch Powell made his 'Rivers of Blood' speech.

'When the speech came through, there were a lot of people in Jamaica, quite rightly, very, very angry.

'I was teaching in a school where we had facilities to listen to the speech and we read about it, and the reaction was enormous.'

Mr Corbyn recalled that some of children he had been teaching that day 'wanted to make sure I got home alright because a lot of people were very angry, and they didn't want me blamed'.

The Labour leader added: 'They were right to be angry about Powell. Fighting racism, it's been my life and now I represent, and have done for a very long time, a very multicultural mixed society and I'm very proud to represent it.'

Mr Corbyn has faced ferocious criticism from many of his own MPs and Jewish leaders for failing to get a grip on the anti-Semitism crisis.

And many of the Labour moderates who have dared to speak out to criticise him over the racism row have been hit by moves to deselect them by the hard-left.

Labour MPs Joan Ryan, Chris Leslie and Gavin Shuker have all lost confidence votes in their local parties after condemning the Labour leadership.

And Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield is facing a censure motion on Wednesday night after she spoke out against the Labour leadership's inaction.

Mr Corbyn risks sparking a fresh row tonight after he told a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party that he will not act to stop hardline activists from trying to oust their MPs.

Joan Ryan, a leading critic of Jeremy Corbyn's failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis, (pictured after a local party meeting in north Londonlast week) lost the confidence motion by just two votes at a party meeting in Enfield, north London

And Gavin Shuker, Labour MP for Luton South, (pictured at a protest outside Parliament in 2014) also lost a no confidence vote - and blamed the hard-left

He told the meeting in Westminster: 'I know what it feels like to be the target of a no confidence vote but it would be wrong for me to intervene in the democratic rights of any part of the Labour Party.'

And he told his MPs that they should stop criticising him and focus their attacks on the Tory Government.

He said: 'We will always have some differences of opinion and we must protect the right of criticism and debate but our first and overwhelming priority is to deliver for the people we represent and remove this Conservative government from office.

'We must focus on that priority and turn our fire outwards.'

The Labour leader was accused of being an anti-Semite after a video emerged of him in 2013 questioning the identity of British Zionists who had criticised Palestinian ambassador Manuel Hassassian.

Mr Corbyn said: 'They clearly have two problems.

'One is they don't want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all of their lives, they don't understand English irony either.'

The comments sparked a massive backlash.

Lord Sacks said: 'The recently disclosed remarks by Jeremy Corbyn are the most offensive statement made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powell's 1968 'Rivers of Blood' speech.

'It was divisive, hateful and like Powell's speech it undermines the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien.'