Harrow Council has backed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism – but will not write to Jeremy Corbyn and urge the national Labour Party to do the same.

A passionate debate at last night’s full council meeting saw the borough’s Labour Group bring an amendment to a Conservative motion, which had asked the council to confront Mr Corbyn over the issue.

Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) passed its own definition of what constitutes anti-Semitism earlier this week.

Its guidelines omitted several sections from the IHRA definition, including accusing Jews of being more loyal to Israel than their home country, claiming that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavour and comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis.

The decision received a negative response in some quarters, with veteran Labour MP Margaret Hodge reportedly calling Mr Corbyn “a f*****g anti-Semite”.

Harrow Labour’s amendment suggested that the council fully backs the IHRA approach, but it argued that confronting its party leader was unnecessary and was put forward as a deliberate act of “political point scoring”.

Cllr Sachin Shah, who brought the amendment, said: “When it comes to anti-Semitism, there are no questions, no ifs, no buts.

“But this is a shameful act of party politics when one was not needed. Anti-Semitism is something we should all take seriously, and this is a time for us to come together.

“[This] motion wants us to speak with two voices, when we should be speaking with one.

“Anti-Semitism is a scourge of our society and we should be joining hands to fight it, not arguing.”

But the opposition councillors viewed this as a cop-out and said there was no excuse not to call out Mr Corbyn over the matter, as many of his fellow MPs and leading Labour figures have done.

The original motion was brought by Cllr Marilyn Ashton, deputy leader of Harrow Conservatives.

She said that it was important to “put politics aside”, “do the right thing” and “send a clear message to Mr Corbyn that anti-Semitism must not be tolerated”.

“Anyone with a conscience should not have a problem agreeing to this motion,” she said.

“It’s wrong for a political party to refuse to accept [the IHRA] definition – that is the crux of the matter.

“I’m not trying to score points or catch anyone out – I’m really concerned about this. It is simply not right.”

Cllr Amir Moshenson likened the amendment to “staying silent” on the issue, while others described it as “disgusting”.

It was passed by five votes. All Labour councillors, except the abstaining Cllr Kareema Marikar, voted in favour, while all Conservative councillors opposed it.