Comedian Ignacio Lopez xenophobically abused by train passenger who told him to 'go back where he came from'

Ignacio Lopez took to X to tell his 25,700 fans about the incident, which occured when he was was travelling in Leeds, West Yorkshire, on Friday night (October 11). In a now viral social media post, he told how another passenger had became aggressive with him.

"Had a horrible experience on way to a gig tonight; complete opposite to the usual experience I’ve had in Yorkshire and North of England previously," Lopez wrote on X. "I got the train from Leeds, almost all the seats taken (so far so normal)…

“I was stood for a bit then noticed a free seat next to a guy, but his foot is on it, and he has a carrier bag on the seat. He wasn’t an old guy (I’d say in his 30s, but I am notoriously bad at guessing ages; I’ve caused upset with my estimations before).

"I asked if it was cool if I sit there and aggressively he said, 'Someone’s sitting there, mate.' I looked around and asked ‘is the "person" your bag?'. He said 'yeah' and stared at me. I asked again if I could sit there, he said 'nah', I laughed and asked ‘why you being like that, man?' He finally moved his leg and bag and I sat down." The unidentified man than asked Lopez, who is star of 'Live at The Apollo' and 'Have I Got News For You', which stop he would be getting off at. When the comedian answered "near Huddersfield", the passenger replied ‘yeah? Then you should go back to your own country."

Lopez wrote that he "just laughed" at the man, adding: “Pointless to explain my background or get into anything. People around were visibly uncomfortable. Conversations hushed.”

He added: "As I start playing with my phone he says, 'you can call the police if you want!' I said 'no, not going to waste their time, they won’t educate you.' Table of women opposite us asked if I wanted to swap seats”

He went on to say that he declined the offer, and told the women he was comfortable even though he wasn’t. He explained: “Why would I let someone else sit next to this guy, chances are if he’s xenophobic he’s going to be misogynistic also. He’s clearly a d***.”

He then explained that he sat in silence for a while, as the man “eyeballed” him. But, when the women tried to make conversation with him to fill the “awkward silence” he could feel the man “bubbling with rage” next to him.

He continued: "Shortly afterwards he demanded ‘let me out! move!', so I stood out of his way, and as he departed he said ‘come to our bloody country, should go back to where you came from!' Just as he got out of reach he said 'd***head!' and wandered into the next carriage.

“The women all asked if I was okay, I was bemused more than anything. Completely unprovoked nastiness from this dweeb. To top it all off, he’d been drinking Spanish beers, and had left four empty cans behind. Doesn’t want Spanish people in the country, but happy to drink the beer? What a plumb.”

Lopez, whose thread has been viewed more than two million times on X, has Spanish, Welsh, Irish, Moroccan, and German family. He lives in Cardiff, and has been called Spain’s Best Export by the Spanish Embassy and Office of Culture in the UK.

As well as hosting on TV, headlining top comedy clubs all over the U.K and Europe, Ignacio writes sketches and sitcoms.