A Scot named William Wallace has challenged Alex Salmond to a fight “any time” live on air.
Bill in Brentwood made the comment after the former first minister suggested he wasn’t living up to his ancestry.
Mr Wallace, who said he had lived in England for 60 years and described the English as “brilliant”, also accused the Gordon MP of holding England to “ransom”.
And he claimed the former SNP leader was using independence as a “weapon” against the English.
The spat happened during Mr Salmond’s weekly phone-in show on LBC radio.
The exchange became more and more heated until Mr Wallace eventually said: “I would fight you any time.”
Mr Salmond could then be heard saying: “I’m glad you are not in Aberdeen.”
The discussion got off to a bad start when Mr Salmond asked what Mr Wallace was doing in Brentwood.
“What are you doing in London? That’s what I want to know,” the caller replied, to which the MP said: “I got sent here by the people. I got elected.”
Things got progressively worse as they debated the negotiations on the fiscal framework for the Scotland Bill currently being undertaken by both the Westminster and Holyrood Governments.
Asked what would happen if the deadline for an agreement was missed, Mr Salmond said: “All that would happen is the legislation would not go through to give Scotland extra powers.”
Mr Wallace said he was not worried about Scotland, before hitting out at the SNP for trying to “break up the UK”.
He added that it made him “sick” because his granddad lost his life in the First World War “fighting for Britain”.
Mr Salmond said his own father is in the Erskine Hospital for ex-servicemen and that his late mother was a Wren, in the Women’s Royal Naval Service.
He then referred to a song they used to sing, which went: “There’ll always be an England, as long as Scotland’s free.”
In response, Mr Wallace remarked: “What a load of garbage.”