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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised for meeting with a controversial Charedi Jewish activist who opposes LGBT issues being taught in school.

Photographs emerged online of Mr Corbyn eating with Shraga Stern in Parliament after PMQs - prompting anger from the party's Jewish wing.

In February, Mr Stern joined protests outside a Birmingham school against the introduction of lesson about same-sex relationships.

He later wrote to Education Secretary Damian Hinds claiming that forcing schools to teach LGBT issues would see members of his ultra-Orthodox Jewish community leave the country.

His letter said: “Many members of the community would choose to leave the United Kingdom for a more hospitable jurisdiction rather than comply with such an obligation to mention homosexuality or gender reassignment in a positive context at school.”

In a statement Ella Rose, Equalities officer for the Jewish Labour Movement slammed the Labour leader's decision to meet him.

She said: “ Jeremy Corbyn appears intent on meeting those with views incompatible with the progressive politics he claims to champion.

Stern has been a veteran campaigner against children being taught that LGBT people exist.

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"His views do not represent the Labour Party and should have no place within it.”

A Labour insider said the meeting was not a meeting but a "lunch with guests".

Later Mr Stern told Jewish News : “We just had a general discussion. It wasn’t a planned meeting. It was a general chat.”

"I was in the area and I sat next to him and had a chat while he was eating a meal.”

It came as the Labour party over anti-Semitism continued to escalate after 67 of the party’s peers took out an advert in a national newspaper attacking Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the crisis.

The full-page advert in today’s Guardian is addressed directly to the Labour leader - accusing him of letting a “toxic culture divide our movement”. The damning message reads: “The Labour party welcomes everyone* irrespective of race, creed, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation. (*except, it seems, Jews). “This is your legacy Mr Corbyn.”

Signatories include former Tony Blair aide Peter Mandelson, former minister Peter Hain, Robert Winston, and former Labour general secretary Iain McNicol.

The party’s leadership hit back by claiming the letter contains “false and misleading claims about the Party by those hostile to Jeremy Corbyn’s politics”.

Last week the party was left reeling after Panorama carried allegations that members of Mr Corbyn’s inner circle intervened in disciplinary cases, staff were overruled and e-mails were deleted.

(Image: Getty Images)

Labour branded the programme misleading and inaccurate, accused former staffers of having “axes to grind”, and demanded the show is taken off iPlayer .

A spokesman for the Labour leader suggested there should be resignations over the show.

He said: “The BBC broke its own editorial guidelines in a spectacular way in the programme, there was no apparent attempt at even-handedness, fairness and impartiality and we want changes to be made to that.

“Something which includes serious factual errors, quite apart from the misleading elements and the extraordinary lack of balance, it’s not appropriate that should continue to be available in that form.”

Asked if any Labour figures had considered their position in the wake of the show, the spokesman said: “What in the BBC? Arguably they should.”

The party claimed that a number of those who took part in the programme had a political “axe to grind”.

A BBC source told the Mirror they had not received a complaint from Labour requesting for the programme to be removed from BBC iPlayer.

(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX)

The BBC said in a statement: “The BBC stands by its journalism and we completely reject any accusations of bias or dishonesty. The investigation was not pre-determined, it was driven by the evidence. The outcome shows the serious questions facing the Labour Party and its leadership on this issue. The programme adhered to the BBC’s editorial guidelines, including contacting the Labour Party in advance of the broadcast for a full right of reply.”

Mr Corbyn later missed a scheduled meeting with peers and MPs in the party’s Parliamentary Committee to discuss the party’s response to the accusations that it is failing to tackle anti-Semitism.

Baroness Dianne Hayter who is a shadow Brexit minister and deputy leader in the Lords also launched a sensational attack on Jeremy Corbyn, comparing his “bunker mentality” leadership to “the last days of Hitler”.

And she said his allies were “seriously undermining” the party’s governing body.

Labour’s shadow cabinet will hold an emergency meeting on anti-Semitism next Monday.

Its ruling NEC is set to discuss calls to set up a new independent investigations process following a push by deputy leader Tom Watson.

Meanwhile former Labour MP George Galloway is crowdfunding a bid to unseat Mr Watson

Mr Galloway is planning to stand as a pro-Brexit, pro-Jeremy Corbyn independent candidate in the West Bromwich East constituency.

He linked his prospective candidacy announcement to a critical letter written by Mr Watson to Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) general secretary Jennie Formby, over the bitter anti-Semitism row which has engulfed the party.

Mr Watson last week wrote to Ms Formby calling for the party to publish its submission to a watchdog investigating anti-Semitism claims and raising allegations that she had deleted emails relating to cases.

The NEC general secretary has denied Mr Watson’s accusations.

Mr Galloway said that what he termed as Mr Watson’s “criticism of Jennie Formby” had been “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

He added: “Attacking a woman with breast cancer in the middle of chemotherapy in completely misleading terms, went well beyond the pale.”