Anti-semitic incidents at second-highest level

Mr Dhanda said that there had been 547 incidents last year and the government had to continue to work to "bear down" on the problem.

In a Commons debate on anti-semitism, Mr Dhanda told MPs that, by April next year, all police forces would have to collect data on hate crime, including anti-semitism, and that the problem continued to be a "real concern."

On Wednesday, the Jewish community in London was targeted by a new wave of anti-semitic graffiti. Worshippers outside four synagogues in Clapton Common and Stamford Hill were confronted with slogans on walls, including "Jihad to Israel."

Mr Dhanda said: "We do recognise that there is no room for complacency. The number of such incidents in the UK remains far too high. The Community Security Trust recorded 547 incidents during the course of 2007.

"Now, although this represents an 8 per cent fall over the previous year, it is still the second-worst actually on record."

Bassetlaw Labour MP John Mann called for an "intellectual coalition" to fight anti-semitism.