Despite labelling Britain "some random country that hasn't fought a war in 30", JD Vance is actually of Scottish and Irish heritage. The US vice-president described himself as a "Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart" in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. This term refers to people who left Scotland and settled on the Plantation of Ulster in Northern Ireland before moving to America in the 18th and 19th centuries.

       He called them "one of the most distinctive subgroups in America". He wrote: "To understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart." The Republican also said he identifies with "working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degrees" to whom "poverty is the family tradition".

       READ MORE: JD Vance savages UK as 'some random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 years

       The VP's 2016 memoir reads: "I may be white, but I do not identify with the WASPs [White Anglo-Saxon Protestant] of the Northeast. Instead, I identify with the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree.

       "To these folks, poverty is the family tradition - their ancestors were day labourers in the Southern slave economy, sharecroppers after that, coal miners after that, and machinists and mill workers during more recent times.

       "Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbours, friends and family."

       Mr Vance himself, however, spent his early life in Ohio after his grandparents moved from the Appalachians in eastern Kentucky.

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       Many Scots-Irish people settled in the Appalachians, however the VP said his grandparents moved away "in the hope of escaping the dreadful poverty around them".

       There were roughly three million people in the US who described themselves as having Scots-Irish heritage in 2017.

       It is also believed that they have strong connections to the world hillbilly - which may have emerged due to their link to William of Orange, nicknamed King Billy. However, others claim the word only came about towards the end of the 19th century in the US.

       The Vice President's recent comments on the UK have attracted widespread criticism.

       However, Mr Vance denied that he had called the UK "some random country", saying on Tuesday: "This is absurdly dishonest. I don’t even mention the UK or France in the clip, both of whom have fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond."