MANCHESTER, England — Inviting far-right activist Tommy Robinson to Israel was a “foolish move” following an antisemitic terror attack in Britain, a senior Conservative politician said Monday.

James Cleverly, the former foreign secretary who now serves as a shadow housing secretary, told an audience at the POLITICO Pub at Conservative Party conference in Manchester that Robinson is “no friend of the Jewish community.”

It comes after Israel’s Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli extended an invite to the country for Robinson, describing him “a true friend of Israel and the Jewish people.”

In response Cleverly was careful to point out that Chikli is just one member of a “broad coalition within the Israeli government,” adding: “I have no doubt that a number of other people in the Israeli government are as uncomfortable with that as I am.”

But he said: “I think it’s a foolish move on behalf of the individual that did that. Tommy Robinson and others of his ilk are now wrapping themselves up in a pro-Jewish, pro-Israeli posture, because basically it’s an opportunity to do what they really want to do, which is to be anti-Muslim. 

“I think it’s an error,” Cleverly added, describing Robinson as “no friend of the Jewish community, whether it be in London or anywhere, whether it be in the U.K. or anywhere else in the world.”

Cleverly’s comments come after a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue last week left two worshippers dead.