OXFORD City Council has signed up to an official definition of anti-Semitism after it was told not doing so would be a 'travesty'.

Sharone Parnes, a Jewish Woodstock Town councillor, addressed the council at a meeting on Monday and urged the authority to agree to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism.

In January 2017, Sajid Javid, the then secretary of state for communities and local government, wrote to all council leaders to ask them to adopt the IHRA's definition.

But it had not yet been acted upon until Friday. Council leader Susan Brown said on Monday that she has written to the current housing, communities and local government secretary, James Brokenshire, to ask him to add Oxford City Council as a supporting authority.

In the letter to Mr Brokenshire, Ms Brown wrote: "The issue has been raised recently here in Oxford and I am pleased to confirm formally on behalf of Oxford City Council that we support the IHRA definition as part of our commitment to tackle anti-Semitism and associated hate crimes in our city."

She said she had written to him in the belief all councillors would 'want to make clear [their] abhorrence of racism in any form'.

In 2016, the IHRA defined antisemitism as: “A certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.

"Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”