Jeremy Corbyn attended an event in Parliament held by a Muslim group accused of hosting preachers with extremist views.

Mr Corbyn reportedly addressed the Muslim Engagement and Development (Mend) event on Wednesday evening with a handful of Labour MPs also believed to have attended.

Mend was this week accused by a think tank of being “Islamists masquerading as civil libertarians”.

Mr Corbyn’s appearance at the event came after it was also reported that he has refused to attend an official dinner on Thursday evening with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 British statement that helped pave the way for the creation of Israel.

He has apparently asked Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, to attend in his absence.