Jim Davidson has denied accusations he was involved in a racist incident while boarding a train.
The comedian has admitted to sarcastically saying “welcome to our country” to a train attendant during a confrontation on Friday, but insisted he “wasn’t racist”, claiming the other party was white.
PR expert Paul Blanchard was on the train from London’s Euston station and tweeted about the incident at the time, later telling The Sun the abuse was aimed at a black male attendant.
However, Davidson has insisted this was not the case.
He said: “I did tell him to ‘fuck off,’ and I did say, ‘Welcome to our country,’ in a sarcastic manner because I couldn’t help myself.
“The attendant acted in a threatening manner and attempted to stop me boarding because I could not find my older person’s rail pass. I did push past and got on the train and I showed him my pass.
“I was on my way to another charity event so did not want to miss my train. He was a white man with a thick South African accent.”
Passenger Blanchard said: “The man was black. Jim made a couple of phone calls moaning about him and repeatedly used the same kind of dismissive and abusive language.”
Blanchard has since tweeted that he was “happy to be named” in The Sun’s story and claimed to have donated the fee he was paid to charity.