ANAS Sarwar is facing fresh questions over his judgment, after a video emerged of him laughing and joking with a suspect in a multi-million pound VAT fraud investigation.

The Scottish Labour leadership candidate was recently filmed dining with Mohammed Ameen Mirza, who was found with £900,000 stuffed into carrier bags in an HMRC raid.

Mr Sarwar praised him and called him “Scotland’s Donald Trump”.

Mr Mirza, a Glasgow grocery tycoon behind several Nisa stores, was charged with fraudulently evading VAT by failing to declare earnings in late 2015.

Officers from HM Revenue & Customs and Police Scotland raided his gated mansion in Pollokshields and shops in Cambuslang, the Gorbals and Haghill.

They found around £400,000 at his home and another £500,000 in a safe in one of his shops as part of a probe into an alleged £4m VAT fraud.

He remains the subject of a report to the Procurator Fiscal.

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The raid was reported in the Scottish, trade and Pakistan press at the time.

Mr Mirza, 52, is also the Scottish president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the centre-right party currently in power in Pakistan.

In 2014, he was pictured with former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Mr Sarwar’s father, the former MP and Punjab Governor, Mohammad Sarwar at an event in Glasgow. However Anas Sarwar was filmed with Mr Mirza after the raid and attendant publicity.

The two men attended a dinner in a Glasgow restaurant in March for a visit by Sardar Asad Khan Balooch, the newly elected mayor of Sahiwal, a city in southern Punjab.

In an Asian TV news report of the event, Mr Sarwar gave the introductory speech.

Mohammed Ameen Mirza (right) with Anas Sarwar

Indicating Mr Mirza, who was sitting two places to his left, he said: “Thank you to the President of the Muslim League. I’m delighted that Scotland’s Donald Trump is with us today.

“He also wants to build a wall, but a wall between India and Pakistan, and India’s going to pay for it is the campaign there.

“No, genuinely, I mean Mirza Sahib is a perfect demonstration, Mayor, that no matter what our political affiliation may be in Pakistan, or indeed what our city or regional affiliation may be in Pakistan, when it comes to the issues of Pakistan, or indeed welcoming guests from Pakistan, we are one united community.”

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North Lanarkshire SNP councillor Shahid Farooq was also one of around a dozen guests.

Shahid Farooq pictured with First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon

Tax evasion is estimated to cost the UK Treasury £16bn each year, money Labour says could be used for public services with tougher enforcement.

Mr Sarwar, 34, the centrist list MSP for Glasgow, has faced a series of questions about his judgment in the Scottish Labour leadership race against left-winger Richard Leonard.

Last year he urged Jeremy Corbyn to stand down as UK Labour leader, but now says he wants him to be Prime Minister.

He also sends his young sons to £10,000-a-year Hutcheson’s Grammar.

Last week the Herald revealed he had a shareholding in a company in a tax haven.

He briefly held the stake in the former software firm Picsel Group Holdings Limited, which was based in Guernsey in the Channel Islands, while the MP for Glasgow Central.

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Mr Sarwar also failed to volunteer that he and and his wife had received more than £500,000 in unearned dividend income from the family business, United Whole (Scotland) Ltd.

After controversy over the firm’s pay and employment regime, Mr Sarwar said he had signed over his 23 per cent stake, worth an estimated £4.8m, to a trust for his children.

The Crown Office said the report on Mr Mirza remained “under consideration”. HMRC declined to comment.

An SNP source said: “Anas Sarwar’s Corbynista credentials were never convincing - but his hypocrisy on issues like the living wage and recognition of trade unions has been exposed on a daily basis.

“Now the focus is on the company he keeps - his boasts about being hand in glove with 'Scotland's Donald Trump' will not go down well in Labour ranks.

“And his comments about building a wall between Pakistan and India are distasteful, even if made in jest.”

Mr Sarwar’s campaign denied Mr Mirza was playing any role in the leadership effort.

A spokesman said: “Anas was invited to represent the Labour Party at a dinner several months ago with the mayor of Sahiwal, which he accepted.

“There were other guests separately invited by the organisers who attended this dinner, such as a representative from the SNP and Pakistan’s ruling party.”