Jeremy Corbyn has been swept up in a fresh anti-Semitism row after he was pictured with an activist who has previously called for Holocaust denial to be treated as free speech.

The Labour leader was condemned by Jewish groups over an image taken outside the party’s annual conference, which showed him standing next to Miko Peled, a controversial activist who last year said people should be free to ask “Holocaust: yes or no”.

Mr Peled, an Israeli-American, tweeted a picture of himself smiling with Mr Corbyn on Sunday, writing: “brilliant to see the courageous Jeremy Corbyn. Accessible, gracious and generous on the street with people.”

He has previously described Jews as having “a reputation for being sleazy thieves”. He was photographed 24 hours later posing with Chris Williamson MP, a long-standing supporter of Mr Corbyn, at a fringe event in Liverpool.

The latest controversy comes just 12 months after Mr Peled was widely condemned by senior Labour figures, including Tom Watson, after he compared Israel to the Nazis at last year’s conference in Brighton.