Tony Blair's New Role To Tackle Anti-Semitism

Tony Blair is taking on a new role combating anti-Semitism after warning "we live in dangerous times".

The former prime minister is to become chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR).

It campaigns for European to make Holocaust denial a criminal offence, clearly define racism and anti-Semitism, and to pay for security at synagogues and Jewish schools.

Writing in The Times, Mr Blair and Moshe Kantor, a Russian--born Jewish businessman, warned that Europe is at a turning point.

"There have been three periods in the past hundred years when the annual GDP growth in Europe went below 1%: first in 1913, just before the First World War, second in 1938, just before the Second World War, and third in 2014.

"Economic decline fuels instability."

The pair cited a report on global anti-Semitic incidents which founf 2014 was one of the worst years in the past decade.

The announcement comes shortly after Mr Blair revealed he is stepping down as the Middle East envoy for the Quartet - the US, European Union, United Nations and Russia.