Sarwar accuses far right of 'relentless, sustained and organised' racist campaign against him

Mr Sarwar was responding to the latest onslaught of racist abuse after he posted a video entitled, "sharing food, not hate" and eating a variety of foods with his hands.

In it he is seen eating fish and chips, pizza, a burger, a sandwich, crips and a samosa - and begins the film by saying "warning, the far right say I'm a danger because I sometimes eat with my hands."

The video was a response to racist criticism against those of south Asian ethnicity who traditionally eat food, including rice, with their hands, including the Democratic Party's New York mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani. Republican congressmen said he needed to "go back to the third world".

Mr Sarwar told LBC: "The video I did was a bit of fun - taking a bit of fun out myself, but also a bit of fun out of those who want to have a go at us constantly on social media feeds.

"There now seems to be a relentless campaign to question my identity, to question my loyalty, to question my Scottishness from certain figures on X. I think it is a deliberate political strategy as well and I just wanted to call them out as someone that is a proud Scot, a proud Glaswegian and someone who enjoys eating fish and chips, pizza, burgers, and much else with my hands."

He added: "I think it's sad that these views are now being mainstreamed. I think a lot of it has been driven by far right accounts, on social media feeds, in particular X, and probably other platforms, too.

"I think it's organised, and I think it's international organisation, not just people here at home. And I think that's really dangerous, actually, for our democracy, I think, is dangerous for our cohesion between our communities, and I think we've got a history of actually pushing back against these kind of forces, and I'm very confident that we can do that again in the future.

"In terms of what it means, for me, to be honest, my skin's thick enough and I'm ugly enough to take it. I get it's par for the course now of modern day politics. What I'm more interested in is how I can use my position and the election is coming to actually make a positive difference to our country."

Mr Sarwar has previously spoken of receiving racist abuse throughout his political career - but he believes it has stepped up in its ferocity in recent months.

In the campaign for the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election earlier this year, he was the subject of an attack ad from Reform which was condemned as “racist” by the party’s opponents.

The ad featured a 2020 speech where Mr Sarwar encouraged more people from a south Asian background to enter politics, but Reform accused him of “prioritising” Pakistani people.

Mr Sarwar said he was aware of racism in politics since he was a child because of "not identical, but similar kinds of attacks when I was growing up and my father was trying to be a politician, when he was trying to get elected as the country’s first Muslim MP, and there was threats, there was abuse, there was violence at that time."

He has said that makes him more resilient, but that he now feels guilt as his own children are experiencing the same.