James Johnson worked as a senior research and strategy adviser to Theresa May from 2016-19 and was responsible for running No 10’s polling. On Thursday Mr Johnson carried out research on the upcoming election with a focus group in a London swing seat. Afterwards he tweeted that overall people had still not made up their minds about their voting intentions, but he highlighted a serious problem for Mr Corbyn.

He tweeted: ”Corbyn slated for antisemitism. Voters did not know what this word meant a year ago. Came up straight away tonight.”

The Labour Party has been embroiled in a growing scandal over antisemitism ever since Mr Corbyn was elected leader in 2015.

As the party has tracked ever more towards the left, it has become far more vocal in its criticism of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians, in particular over its building of settlements in the occupied territories.

Jewish Labour MPs have also bitterly complained of being racially abused by party members and activists.

This has led to the high profile resignations from the party of Luciana Berger, MP for Liverpool Wavetree and her colleague Dame Louise Ellman, MP for Liverpool Riverdside.

Ms Ellman was particularly scathing in her criticism of Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of antisemitism in the party.

She described Labour as a “party that permits anti-Jewish racism to flourish” and accused the Labour leader of “attracting the support of too many anti-Semites.”

In an effort to draw a line under the scandal, Mr Corbyn asked the barrister and human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti in 2016 to look into the extent of anti-Semitism and other forms of racism within the party.

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The report concluded that while Labour was not “overrun by anti-Semitism or other forms of racism”, there was an “occasionally toxic atmosphere”.

It called for a series of recommendations to tackle what it said was the “clear evidence of ignorant attitudes” within sections of the party.

The report was dismissed by critics as a feeble response to a deep seated problem and an attempt to whitewash its anti-Semitism.

In the latest setback for Mr Corbyn, the Jewish Chronicle has openly called for British people to vote against the Labour leader,who it brands unequivocally as an antisemite.

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In an impassioned front page article, it said: ”Throughout his career, he has allied with and supported antisemites such as Paul Eisen, Stephen Sizer and Raed Salah.

“He has described organisations like Hamas, whose founding charter commits it to the extermination of every Jew on the planet as his “friends”.

“He has laid a wreath to honour terrorists who have murdered Jews.”

The article concludes with a plea to voters to reject Mr Corbyn at the ballot box.

“We believe that the overwhelming majority of British people abhor racism.

“We ask only that when you cast your vote, you act on that.”

In reply to the article, Mr Corbyn insisted that he was not an antisemite and had worked all his life to fight against all forms of racism.

He said:”Anti-Semitism is a poison and an evil in our society. Any form of racism is a poison and an evil in our society.

“I have spent my whole life fighting against racism. I will die an anti-racist.”

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