Jeremy Corbyn’s controversial claim that Zionists “don’t understand English irony” despite “having lived in the country a very long time” has been given a withering assessment by the creator of Yes Minister.

Jonathan Lynn said that the most appropriate response to the Labour leader’s denials of antisemitism came from Sir Humphrey Appleby, the programme’s fictional Whitehall mandarin, who said: “Never believe anything until it’s been officially denied.”

In a letter to The Times, Lynn said: “I am Jewish. Although I wrote Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, Corbyn says I don’t understand English irony. My co-writer Tony Jay was only half-Jewish, so perhaps he half-understood irony and was able to supply some.

“The Labour Party continues to deny that Corbyn is an