A senior Labour frontbencher has said sorry for the party’s dealing of anti-Semitism within its ranks a day after Jeremy Corbyn refused to apologise.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told Good Morning Britain: ‘I think he has apologised in the past … but I feel a great sense of sorrow and I want to apologise.’

He added: ‘It’s right, our procedures need to be strengthened further because we can have no truck with anti-Semitism.’

Mr Corbyn faced a backlash today after he repeatedly refused to say sorry for the way the party has acted on the issue during a TV interview last night.

In a blistering attack earlier on Tuesday, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said a ‘poison’ – ‘sanctioned from the top’ – had taken root in the party and suggested Mr Corbyn was unfit to be prime minister.

But the Labour leader was asked four times to apologise by the BBC’s Andrew Neil last night and failed to do so.

Mr Corbyn has repeatedly apologised over anti-Semitism in the past but last night denied it had increased after he took over the party, saying: ‘It didn’t rise after I became leader.

‘Anti-Semitism is there in society, there are a very, very small number of people in the Labour Party that have been sanctioned as a result about their anti-Semitic behaviour.’

He added: ‘We will not allow anti-Semitism in any form in our society because it is poisonous and divisive, just as much as Islamophobia or far-right racism is.’

Mr Corbyn’s interview was allegedly described as ‘awful’ by the party leader’s own supporters.

Messages purportedly sent between a group of Labour voters emerged after the TV interview in which they described Mr Corbyn’s appearance as ‘truly horrific’.

The supporters appear to urge others in the messaging group to bombard Twitter to try and steer the conversation away from the lack of an apology over anti-Semitism.

One message allegedly said: ‘Ten mins purely on AS [anti-Semitism], the Chief Rabbi etc. JC refused to apologise to the Rabbi so it’s going to be brutal.’

Corbyn is expected to try and steer his party’s campaign back towards the NHS following the 30-minute grilling by Andrew Neil.

He will make ‘a major statement’ on the NHS in Westminister this morning and later will address a climate change rally in Falmouth as he attempts to move the debate away from accusations of anti-Semitism in Labour.

Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffth last night said she was ‘very ashamed’ at the way the party had behaved and said Labour now needed to apologise to the Jewish community.

This morning, shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon insisted Mr Corbyn had already apologised to the Jewish community on a number of occasions.

Mr Burgon – a close ally of Mr Corbyn – acknowledged Labour had not acted fast enough to deal with the issue and said they were sorry for the ‘very real hurt’ that had been caused.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Of course we’re sorry for the hurt caused.

‘Jeremy’s already said that the Labour Party’s processes were wrong, they weren’t swift enough, they weren’t hard enough, that’s been proved and that’s right.’

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