Tony Blair has announced his first new public role since resigning as Middle East peace envoy, taking up a position to tackle anti-Semitism and religious extremism across Europe.

He sets out the issues that prompted him to take up the role of chairman of The European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR), which campaigns for European countries to ban Holocaust denial and for governments to pay for security at synagogues and Jewish schools, The Telegraph reported on Thursday.

His move comes at a time of rising anti-Semitism in Britain and elsewhere, but will fuel criticism among Palestinians that he favoured Israel during his time as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of the US, European Union, United Nations and Russia.