A LABOUR councillor has been reprimanded by his party after making insulting remarks about Sikhs.

Glasgow politician Hanif Raja was disciplined after claiming he was elected in May despite the efforts of the "Indian community".

Tory councillor David Meikle questioned whether Mr Raja, who was awarded the MBE for inter-faith relations, could remain as one of the council's bailies.

Mr Raja gave an interview to a Pakistan television network on the day of his election in May in which he alleged, in Urdu, that Sikhs and Indians had not voted for him because of his views on Kashmir.

One translation had the Pollokshields councillor saying: "I have been presented with so many obstacles from the Sikh and Indian community. I got a backlash when I went to them for votes.

"They said to me 'we can't support you because you support Kashmir'. I said to them: 'If you don't want to give me the vote because of this then fine, this is my ideology. I won't ever compromise on this'."

After the Labour Party was alerted, Mr Raja apologised for "any offence" caused by his "clumsily worded" statements. The remarks caused outrage in the Sikh community, as Sikhs campaigned and voted for Mr Raja.

A Labour spokesman said: "We require all our councillors to uphold the highest of standards and Mr Raja has apologised profusely."