Kemi Badenoch has warned that it is becoming “fashionable” to be antisemitic at London dinner parties.
In an exclusive interview with the London Standard, she slammed the new “fad” at social gatherings in the capital as “shameful”.
The Tory leader issued her withering criticism in the wake of the Golders Green stabbings and series of arson attacks on the Jewish community in north London.
“It is becoming more and more acceptable to be antisemitic at dinner parties across the country,” Mrs Badenoch said on a visit to Bexley, east London, during campaigning for the May 7 local elections.
“That's wrong.”
Pressed on whether this startling new trend was happening in London, she added: “I think people think it's becoming fashionable again, and that's why I think that we need to make it shameful to be antisemitic.
“Lots of people are treating this as a fad.
“The new faddish thing to discuss is how you're anti-Zionist, which is often a cover for antisemitism and pro-Palestine.
“You can support Palestine without being hateful towards Jewish people.”
She also stressed that Jewish people are “under siege” in Britain, with synagogues in London now preparing for the threat of a chemical weapons strike.
“They're being attacked, killed, if you look at what's happening in Manchester and Golders Green is the frontline,” Mrs Badenoch said.
“I was there just before Passover, and people were telling me how frightened they were and now look what's happened.”
Two Jewish men were stabbed last week in Golders Green in an attack which horrified the nation.
Mrs Badenoch also called for a moratorium on pro-Gaza marches in London which have been blamed for fuelling antisemitism.
The Government is considering restricting or banning some of the demonstrations, a move opposed by Green Party leader Zack Polanski.
The Green leader was also involved in a row with Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley after he shared a post accusing officers who arrested the Golders Green alleged attacker of using excessive force.
Mr Polanski apologised for raising this issue on social media but stood by his stance on it.
Sir Mark told how officers feared that the suspected attacker may have had a bomb on him.
He has also warned of an epidemic of antisemitism in the UK.
Amid the spiralling number of antisemitic incidents, Sir Keir Starmer summoned civic chiefs to No10 on Tuesday to step up action to tackle them.
He also told Iran that efforts to stir up violence and hatred in the UK “will not be tolerated”.
He issued the warning amid suspicions that Tehran is behind the string of antisemitic attacks in London, through a shadowy group suspected to be a proxy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Britain’s anti-terror laws chief Jonathan Hall KC has told how Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, may be carrying out the “dirty work” of the Tehran regime by recruiting people in London and other parts of the UK to commit crimes.
The Prime Minister told leaders of community groups, senior Government ministers and police chiefs that there would be “consequences” if Iran was found to be behind some of the incidents.
Describing the situation as a crisis, Sir Keir said new legislation would be rushed through Parliament to tackle “malign threats”.
The Government has promised a new law to allow it to take action against state-backed groups amid calls for the proscription of the IRGC.
At the roundtable of senior figures from the police, representatives from the arts, higher education, trade unions and businesses, Sir Keir pushed for a “zero tolerance” approach to antisemitism on university campuses and action in the arts.
But the Government has been accused by Jewish leaders in Britain, and by Israel, of being too slow at responding to the growing antisemitism crisis.
As the Downing Street gathering took place, the Metropolitan Police announced that counter-terror police were investigating an arson at a former synagogue in Nelson Street, Tower Hamlets, east London.
