A Labour MP has told how he was subjected to slurs over his weight and Scottish accent during Commons debates.
Hugh Gaffney, who was elected in June last year, revealed he has been "heckled something awful" by Tory MPs - but said nothing would deter him from standing up for "workers and equality".
The Scot, who has been involved with the trade union movement for more than a decade, shrugged off the insults, saying he had a "harder time" from former postal service colleagues.
The dad-of-three told the Press Association: "There's heckling, aye, it is what kind of heckling you get.
"When people start attacking your body size then you're winning the argument because they're not going for the policy.
"In the chamber one of the MPs made a remark about my language, basically he was saying we can't understand you, so he's having a wee pop at the Scottish accent.
"Somebody else pulled him up for it and in fairness to the man he came up and apologised, he was heckling me something awful."
Despite the heckling Mr Gaffney, who represents the Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill constituency, expressed a fondness for Parliament - a place he has dubbed "Butlins".
He said: "I call it a theatre because they're all screaming and shouting. You want to see a real-life pantomime? Come to Parliament.
"But I was comfortable with the place straight away, I call this Butlins.
"It does take you away from the real world though, that's why I say to my friends and family you need to stay in touch with me, I need to know what is going on in the real world."
Mr Gaffney, who wore his former postal uniform to Parliament after being elected, often wears his Communication Workers Union tie as a reminder of his allegiance.
He said: "I spent my life in the post office, I would chat on doorsteps and say: 'Send a working man to Parliament'.
"So I came down here with my uniform on, that was one of my symbols to say the working man has arrived."
He added: "The way to change politics is to get more real society in here, it's purely business people in here.
"It's like the posh boys and the working-class boys, I suppose if you live in here all the time I can understand why some of our Labour boys become posh boys.
"When the trade union started emerging they said you'll wear the tie so much that you'll forget who you're representing.
"I feel workers don't get enough, they deserve more, they deserve better."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel