JEREMY Corbyn and Tony Blair have clashed over the future of Labour, as infighting over anti-Semitism continued to engulf the party.

Speaking to the BBC, the former prime minister warned that his old party might now be a lost cause.

He said: “I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for over 40 years. You do feel a strong loyalty and attachment, but at the same time it’s a different party. The question is, can it be taken back?”

“This is a different type of Labour Party. Can it be taken back? I don’t know.

“There’s lots of people associated with me who feel that the Labour Party’s lost, that the game’s over. I’m kind of hoping they’re not right.”

Blair also told the broadcaster that he thought voters would not “tolerate” a situation where the choice for the next leader of the UK was between Corbyn and Boris Johnson. “Something will fill that vacuum,” he warned.

Blair described the current row over anti-Semitism as ghastly and “a matter of great sadness”.

But Corbyn insisted Labour had widespread support, and party membership was at a record high.

“Tony should recognise the party membership is now much bigger than it’s ever been, it’s the biggest it’s ever been in my lifetime, well over half a million members, and in the General Election last year we set out what our aspirations are for the people of this country,” he said.

He added: “We got the highest vote for Labour since 2001, so I think we need to recognise that people are not prepared any longer to live in a society that is so unequal and walk by on the other side when some of our fellow citizens are sleeping on the streets.

“We have to invest in our future and invest in our public services, that’s what the fundamental message was from the general election.”

Jon Lansman, founder of the Corbyn-supporting Momentum campaign, was furious. He rushed to back up the current leader.

“Tony Blair was never in the right party and there will never be a return to his politics in UK Labour,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, Labour backbencher Joan Ryan, who chairs Labour Friends of Israel, hit out at “Trots, stalinists, communists and assorted hard left” after she lost a vote of no confidence in her own constituency party in London’s Enfield North.

The veteran MP, who has been a longstanding critic of Corbyn, lost the vote 94-92.

Controversially the whole vote and debate was broadcast live on Iranian state-backed channel Press TV.

Tom Watson, the party’s deputy leader, tweeted: “Impossible to fathom how Iran State TV was able to live-tweet the Joan Ryan no-confidence vote at Enfield North – from inside the CLP meeting. This disorder makes a farce of the proceedings and is not how the modern Labour Party should conduct its affairs.”

Former frontbencher Chuka Umunna will weigh in today, saying Labour needs to concentrate on the fight with the Tories and stop rowing among themselves.

In a speech to the BAME Voices for Progress conference today, he is expected to say that Labour MPs are preparing for more attempts to have them deselected.

He will say: “My message to our leadership: it is within your power to stop this so call off the dogs and get on with what my constituency, one of the most diverse communities in the nation, demands we do – without equivocation, fight this Tory Brexit. That is where all our efforts should be.”

Umunna will tell the conference that the Brexit debate has normalised hatred and black and minority ethnic voters have “paid the price”.

He will warn the Labour leadership it would be a “complete betrayal” of the party’s values to “act as a bystander and wave through this disastrous Brexit”, and call for it to back a referendum on the final deal.

“It is simply not good enough to adopt a position which refuses to make the case for a people’s vote on the deal and at the same time leave it on the table as an option in the event of impasse in the House of Commons,” he will say.

“That is simply constructive ambiguity continued, which needs to be junked.”

“Let’s dump the prevarication, stop using internal factional reasons as an excuse to avoid it, and back a people’s vote wholeheartedly now.”