Adil Ray is taking a step back from Twitter because "the racism is far too much".

Adil Ray

Adil Ray

The 46-year-old actor admitted he will only be using the social media platform to promote his work rather than engaging with followers, as he pointed to the abuse he receives on the site.

On Friday morning (31.07.20), he tweeted: "I have chosen to no longer look at my mentions regularly.

"I'll just be posting to plug my work & campaigns. The racism is far too much & damaging.

"I'm sorry I won't get to see the nice tweets at times. Do find me at Instagram which is a much more pleasant place right now."

The 'Citizen Khan' star recently opened up about the racism he has faced throughout his life and revealed he was the "second Asian kid" at "a very white school" - his older brother was the first - and he explained how his mother taught her sons to deal with the issue after he was "called the p-word".

He said: "I remember when I was called the p-word at school. Oh yeah - I went to a very white school. My brother was the first Asian kid at school, five years before me, and then I was the second Asian kid.

"I remember being called the p-word and I remember my mum, she said to me two things. 'Well, they just called you the p-word. One, go back to them and call them Englings. It's just short for what you are, and you are Pakistani'.

"So I did that. And she also said, 'Don't forget, it's just one person. That's just one person, it's not all people. Look at our neighbours, they're fantastic aren't they? You go round to their house.' "

He also pointed out that while every family has someone who holds "bigoted views", more needs to be done to tackle the serious problem.

He explained: "Look, we all know in our families there is the uncle, there is the aunt, there is somebody that has got discriminatory, bigoted views - even in Asian families. And I think it's up to us all to tackle that at home. The time has come."