Ed Miliband was today branded a 'failed figure' and a 'joke' by an Israeli government spokesman amid a furious sanctions row.

David Mencer, an ex-Labour councillor who is now a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, launched a broadside at the Foreign Secretary.

He hit out after Mr Miliband this week announced Britain would ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements.

The Foreign Secretary told MPs on Tuesday that a 'new approach' to the West Bank was needed due to Israel pushing ahead with the controversial E1 settlement scheme.

But critics have warned the ban on goods from settlements risks becoming a 'de facto boycott' of Israel.

Ephraim Mirvis, the UK's chief rabbi, has also claimed the Labour Government's action will make British Jews less safe.

Mr Mencer, a former director of Labour Friends of Israel, said it was 'pretty obvious' that Mr Miliband and Prime Minister Andy Burnham were acting due to 'domestic political pressures'.

Ahead of the upcoming Holborn and St Pancras by-election next month, Mr Mencer told GB News: 'They know they're losing ground to the Greens, so they're trying to outflank them on the Left.

'The thing is, it will fail because no one trusts them here in Israel, and I'm pretty sure that no one will trust Labour on the streets of Holborn and St Pancras.'

He added: 'I think this is a ridiculous policy. It's nakedly for domestic politics. Nothing to do with us here in Israel.

'But what it does do, and I can tell you this for sure, is that it makes every single British Jew think to themselves; number one, "Labour has betrayed me", and number two, "is there a future for Britain's Jewish community to stay where they are?".

'I think most will be rubbing their heads and thinking "probably not".'

Asked if Mr Miliband could be banned from Israel, Mr Mencer replied: 'Ed Miliband is very much a failed figure. If you look at what he's done on Net Zero, he's a joke.

'His run to be PM was a joke, and what he's doing is that he's doing the same thing that he's done in his career, except he's dragging the whole country down with him, and Britain is sacrificing the very influence which it actually wants, and that's the irony of this whole thing.

'Britain says it wants greater influence over the future of peace in this region, over all of the challenges which our people around here face – Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs alike, but the irony is, is that by pursuing this ridiculous student grandstanding, it just means that they have removed the influence that they once had.

'I compare it very much to France, mildly annoying but ultimately irrelevant. Miliband has made Britain irrelevant.'

Mr Mencer added that 'no one here in Israel wants to see Ed Miliband in Israel'.

His attack on the Foreign Secretary came after Mr Miliband used a series of TV and radio interviews to reject Sir Ephraim's suggestion that the Government is emboldening anti-Semites.

Mr Miliband said he had 'great respect' for Sir Ephraim, but did not agree, adding: 'We all need to do more to tackle anti-Semitism, but I believe we can do that and stand up for British values.'

In response to Mr Miliband's announcement of a ban on trade with illegal settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday, Israel closed the British consulate in East Jerusalem and banned 11 MPs from the country.

Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, the Foreign Secretary said: 'I regret what the Israeli government has announced, but I'm proud of what we did yesterday and it was the right thing to do.'