Labour's Thornbury and Yate candidate has criticised his own party's response to antisemitism.

Rob Logan said the failure was the “worst” thing Jeremy Corbyn’s party had done in recent times and had made members of the Jewish community feel “betrayed and unsafe”.

Responding to the criticism, a Labour spokesperson insisted antisemitism was an “evil” and they were committed to rooting it out.

The scandal has engulfed the party for many months amid a deluge of complaints about alleged comments and social media posts by its members.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is investigating Labour over whether it unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimised people because they were Jewish.

Speaking at the hustings at Thornbury Baptist Church on Wednesday night (December 4), Mr Logan and Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Claire Young were asked by a member of the public to name one area of their parties’ manifestos or campaigns they disagreed with.

Mr Logan replied: “I am going to take a great risk as a politician and answer the question directly and honestly.

“The thing my party has done worst over the last couple of years is to not address the stain of antisemitism as quickly and as honestly as it should have done.

“There are lots of reasons for that, but what is manifestly obvious is that numbers of people in the Jewish community felt betrayed and unsafe.

“We should have said sorry earlier.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Antisemitism is an evil and we are committed to rooting it out of our party and society.

“We are fully cooperating with the EHRC.

“The Labour Party is not institutionally antisemitic and complaints relate to a small minority of our members.

“We are the only political party that has published figures on cases of antisemitism, and we regularly account for the work we are doing to tackle it, including Jeremy Corbyn’s reforms for rapid expulsions, which allow individuals to be expelled within a matter of weeks in open-and-shut cases.”

Mr Corbyn was attacked last month by the UK’s most senior Jewish leader, chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who said: “A new poison – sanctioned from the very top – has taken root in the Labour Party.”

The Labour leader faced renewed criticism after repeatedly refusing to apologise during a TV interview with Andrew Neil, before later apologising.

Meanwhile, Claire Young said at the hustings that the Lib Dem policy she disagreed with was how to tackle gender inequality.

She said: “I am not a fan of all-women shortlists for selection.

“When you talk about inequality you should keep asking the question ‘why’, keep digging down until you find out where there is that inequality.

“If you just fix the thing towards the end of the process, you avoid looking at the underlying reasons.”