One of the signatories of a letter of support for Jeremy Corbyn has distanced himself from the letter, saying he “made a mistake.”

Hyman Bindinger, 81, was among a dozen Holocaust survivors to have signed an open letter in The Sunday Times arguing that Jeremy Corbyn had “bent over backwards to help Jews”.

The letter was prompted by an announcement from the Equality and Human Rights Commission that it would look into the Labour Party’s tackling of antisemitism.

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Bindinger said he was approached by a “respectable”-looking stranger at a wedding and asked to sign the letter.

“It was a mistake,” said Bindinger, “I must admit that the person came up to me and in the middle of it and the music was blaring and he asked me to sign, and I made a mistake.”

He added: “He showed me that other people signed and I thought ‘I will sign it’… I do not understand what it’s about. I hardly know who Corbyn is.

“[My friends and family] told me that I’m a big fool. I will be more careful.”

Charedi activist Shraga Stern admitted to coordinating the letter, saying in a statement: “I am proud to say that I facilitated the collection of signatures and that I was punctilious in assuring myself that (a) all the signatures were authentic and (b) that the signatories knew exactly what they were signing.

“I have no hesitation in adding that each and every one of the signatories is a genuine holocaust survivor according to widely accepted definitions of that phrase.”