He said: “When I was growing up we used to call the Chinese ‘chingalings’.
“We weren’t being disrespected (sic). We used to say, ‘we’re going to eat in chingalings’."
Whelan stressed he has many Jewish friends. He said: “I wouldn’t like to mention any one of them.
“Please take it I have a lot of Jewish friends.
“I bet there are a dozen who have got apartments in Majorca, where I am.
“And so many Jewish people go to Barbados at Christmas. That’s when I go. I see a lot of them in the Lone Star, in restaurants. I play golf with a few of them.
“I don’t want to mention any particular names because I don’t want to pull their names into it.
“It would be unfair of me because they are good friends. They may object to me putting them in a newspaper or in publicity or whatever.”