In a new book, Mr Carr describes his parents – who hail from Limerick – as having “moved from a shit town to another shit town” when they relocated to Slough.

His estranged father, businessman Jim Carr Snr, has now called on his son to be stripped of the “certificate of Irish heritage” bestowed on him in 2013, the Limerick Leader reports.

The certificate was presented to Mr Carr by former Limerick mayor Kathleen Leddin on behalf of the city and county council, and was signed by then Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Mr Carr Snr said: “His defence will be ‘they are only words, I’m only having a laugh’. But there are people reading that Limerick is a shit town and Slough is a shit town.”

He added: “Ironically, we didn’t move to Slough, we moved from Limerick to South Kensington, London.”

There could also be legal action on the horizon after Mr Carr Snr said he had instructed his lawyer over the book, which is “full of defamation by word and innuendo”.