Miliband defiant over MEP criticism

The row over MEP Michael Kaminski re-erupted after Poland's Chief Rabbi said he did not believe his countryman was an anti-Semite despite his "problematic" past.

Rabbi Michael Schudrich found himself drawn into the increasingly bitter spat after Mr Miliband quoted him in a speech denouncing Mr Kaminski for his "anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi past".

The Jewish leader told the BBC that Mr Kaminski was a "complicated" man who had now emerged as a strong ally of the State of Israel and had spoken out against anti-Semitism.

Mr Kaminski chairs the European Conservatives and Reformists grouping in the European Parliament, set up by Mr Cameron after he withdrew his MEPs from the mainstream centre-right caucus.

Conservative Party leader Mr Cameron said Rabbi Schudrich had been "very, very clear".

"He said that this man, this leader of this mainstream Polish party is not anti-Semitic. I think now David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, does need to think again and does need to withdraw very serious accusations he's made and does need to apologise.

"Bandying around accusations as a British Foreign Secretary about a mainstream party in Europe I think is quite wrong and David Miliband needs to recognise that, as I'm sure he now will."

But, asked at a post EU-summit press conference if he would apologise, the Foreign Secretary insisted he had been right in what he said.

"What I said in my speech to the party conference was that Michael Kaminski had been denounced by the Chief Rabbi for past associations with a neo-Nazi group. That quotation is clear on the BBC and other websites and that quotation has not been retracted by the Chief Rabbi of Poland and it is a clear point that he has made."