Jeremy Corbyn has insisted that Labour has offered “its sympathies and apologies” to victims of antisemitism within the party, claiming that his would be “the most anti-racist government you’ve ever seen”.

The opposition leader was criticised after he declined four opportunities to apologise for his party’s approach to dealing with antisemitism in an interview with the broadcaster Andrew Neil on Tuesday night. The exchange followed comments by the UK’s chief rabbi that “a new poison, sanctioned from the top” had taken root in the party.

Speaking the following morning, Corbyn said a future Labour government would be “the most anti-racist government you’ve ever seen”. He said: “Because that is what I’ve spent my whole life doing, fighting against racism, and I will die fighting against racism.”

Antisemitism has no place in Labour, says Corbyn after rabbi's criticism Read more

He said he had made it clear that antisemitism is wrong. “Our party did make it clear when I was elected leader, and after that, that antisemitism is unacceptable in any form in our party or our society and did indeed offer its sympathies and apologies to those who had suffered,” he said.

The Labour leader made the comments at an event to unveil documents obtained by the party to show the NHS would be vulnerable in a post-Brexit trade deal with the US. During a press conference, the shadow international trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, accused journalists asking about antisemitism of “taking an opportune moment to get a dig in”.

Corbyn said Labour had introduced stronger processes to tackle antisemitism under his leadership. He said that, although the problems had occurred among “0.001% of the party’s membership”, “one [incident] is one too many”.

He said he acknowledged what the chief rabbi had said but insisted there was a “very large number of other people in the Jewish community who have made it very clear that they do support Labour and that they do recognise my absolute commitment that every community in our country will be safe under the Labour government”.

Antisemitism and Labour: everything you need to know Read more

Corbyn has previously apologised multiple times for antisemitism in Labour, saying the party had been too slow to respond to allegations, but asked by Neil whether he would say sorry, he said: “What I’ll say is this, I am determined that our society will be safe for people of all faiths. I don’t want anyone to be feeling insecure in our society and our government will protect every community.”

Following the Labour leader’s interview on Tuesday night, members of the shadow cabinet came out to reiterate apologies over the party’s handling of anti-Jewish racism. Nia Griffith, the shadow defence secretary, said she was “ashamed” the party had been dogged by such accusations, while the shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, said the party’s processes had not been swift enough.

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, also repeated the party’s apology. He said antisemitism had been in our society for centuries, but had re-emerged in recent years, infecting “all of our political parties”.

“So in the Labour party, even though it might be tiny, it might be small, [but] as Jeremy said, even one antisemite is not good enough,” said McDonnell, adding that a lot of people were unaware that they were using antisemitic tropes.

The row over Labour’s response to complaints of antisemitism in its ranks has led a string of Labour MPs to resign and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to launch an unprecedented investigation. Labour’s race and faith manifesto, launched on Tuesday, pledged to make the EHRC “truly independent”, a move criticised by the Jewish Labour Movement.