LABOUR has rejected claims that leader Jeremy Corbyn honoured Palestinians who were behind the killings of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The Daily Mail alleged at the weekend that images from 2014 showing Mr Corbyn holding a wreath prove that he was commemorating the activists believed to have been behind the attacks, whose graves were also on site.

The Labour Party said Mr Corbyn had already given a full explanation of his presence in the cemetery in Tunisia.

It said that his visit was to commemorate the 47 Palestinians who died in the 1985 Israeli bombing of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) office in the Tunisian capital Tunis and that it was already accounted for during last year’s general election campaign.

This time around, Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano, the widows of two of the 11 Israeli athletes, accused Mr Corbyn of “maliciousness, cruelty and stupidity” in the Jewish News.

Labour tweeted: “The Munich widows are being misled. Jeremy did not honour those responsible for the Munich killings.

“He and other parliamentarians went to the Palestinian cemetery in Tunisia to remember the victims of the 1985 Israeli bombing of the PLO headquarters, many of whom were civilians.”

The Tories used an article that Mr Corbyn wrote for the Morning Star in 2014 to back up its accusation that he took part to honour those behind the Olympics attack.

The Labour leader had a weekly column for this newspaper for a decade up to 2015.

Mr Corbyn wrote: “Wreaths were laid at the graves of those who died on that day and on the graves of others killed by Mossad agents in Paris in 1991… ”

The Mail assumes that the “others” were suspected leaders of the Black September terrorist group, who are held responsible for the athletes’ deaths.

Mr Corbyn said yesterday: “A wreath was indeed laid by some of those who attended conference to those that were killed in Paris in 1992.

“I was there because I wanted to see a fitting memorial to everyone who has died in every terrorist incident everywhere because we have to end it.

“You cannot pursue peace by a cycle of violence. The only way you pursue peace is a cycle of dialogue.”