British Jewish leaders have reacted angrily after Turkey’s powerful president blamed a “famous Hungarian Jew” for funding “terrorists” and for trying “to divide and destroy nations”.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became the latest nationalist leader to single out billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who was born in Hungary, in a speech that drew on antisemitic imagery.

Erdoğan, an autocrat who has imprisoned hundreds of independent judges, rights campaigners and journalists, blamed Soros for funding “terrorists” behind mass protests in 2013.