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London - One of the most respected figures in the British Jewish community has called on David Cameron (leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom) to cut all links with the Polish MEP chosen to lead the new centre-right group in the European Parliament, which includes the UK Conservative party, because of his attitude towards a massacre of 1,600 Jews in Poland during the Second World War.

Rabbi Barry Marcus, of the Central Synagogue in London, who has studied the fate of Jews in the north-west Polish town of Jedwabne, said he had "watched in horror" at the appointment of Michal Kaminski as chairman of the new European Conservative and Reformist Group (ECR), which now includes the 25 Tory MEPs.

The rabbi said that he had known for some time that Kaminski, who was Jedwabne's local MP, was involved in 2001 in a campaign to oppose a national apology for the massacre on its 60th anniversary in July 2001.

"There needs to be some form of statement [from the Conservatives] of disassociation and condemnation. Otherwise they will appear to be condoning these views. Even if one person like this is in power in a democratic process, that is worrying. It is not building bridges. We want to build bridges," the rabbi said.

Over recent years a series of investigations have shown that Polish residents of Jedwabne, along with some German troops, rounded up the Jewish population in July 1941 and herded them into a barn which was set on fire. At a ceremony in Jedwabne on 10 July 2001, the then president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, called for the country to confront its past and apologised. But many in Jedwabne opposed the ceremony and apology, claiming that the Germans were mainly to blame and that Poland should not say sorry because Polish Jews had "collaborated" with the Soviet occupiers.

An article in the far-right Polish newspaper Nasza Polska on 20 March 2001 quoted Kaminski as saying: "Maybe they try to suppress their own guilty conscience, those Jews who did a lot of harm to Poland during the Soviet occupation and during communism."

Kaminski, who recognises that some Poles were involved in the massacre, last night denied he had been involved in attempts to rally local people against an apology. "The only thing I said at that time is that we should punish the criminals, but we don't have to put the whole responsibility on the whole Polish nation. I was in favour of an apology," Kaminski said.

But others dispute his account. Anna Bikont, writing in the quality daily Gazeta Wyborzam, alleged that Kaminski had joined more than 100 people in a meeting opposed to the commemoration in March 2001 and had suggested writing an open letter opposing any apology by the Polish nation before full investigations had been completed.

Asked if he was at the Jedwabne ceremony, Kaminski at first told the Observer he had been abroad. But when pressed for clarification, given that he was the local MP and this was an international event in his constituency, he said: "I am sorry, I can't remember. Maybe I had been there for a few minutes, maybe I was out of the country - I can't remember. It was nine years ago."

Now in the Polish Law and Justice party, Kaminski became leader of the new ECR group last week after Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott defeated him in a race for the vice-presidency of the European Parliament.

McMillan-Scott said: "What he has said and what he has done must define him as antisemitic."