THE US presidential candidate and public intellectual Cornel West has said Rishi Sunak should be ashamed of himself for continuing to allow UK arms sales to Israel.

During a visit to the Gaza encampment at the University of Edinburgh, West was asked what his message was to Rishi Sunak after the UK Government expressed “serious” concerns about student protesters staging demonstrations on campuses throughout the country.

West has been a vocal supporter of similar protests in the United States and recently delivered a speech to crowds at Columbia University in New York.

The NYPD later stormed the protest and arrested around 300 students who were also threatened with suspension if they continued the encampment.

READ MORE: Inside the Gaza encampment at Edinburgh University

When asked by LBC if he had a message for Sunak, West said: “Shame on you. What kind of moral fibre do you actually have that you could continue to fund this kind of massacring and murdering of people?

“I would also say that these precious children that you see right here. If those children were British or Scottish or European or Israeli, would you have the same response that you have given they’re Palestinian?

“I think there’s a racist dimension as well. Shame on you leaders in America, the UK and other European countries”.

Sunak is due to meet with university leaders on Thursday after claiming that the wave of protests and encampments at institutions across the UK were disruptive to learning and “propagating outright harassment and antisemitic abuse”.

However, West - who is running as an independent candidate against Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the US presidential election - said the UK Government had a “morally bankrupt” stance on Israel’s continuing bombardment of Gaza and were “in denial about genocide”.

“I’m deeply moved by the courage, compassion and the vision of these students concerned about the indescribable suffering, genocide and ethnic cleansing that is taking place,” he said.

“We’re here to be in solidarity with what they’re doing. Bear witness and be witnessed.

“There’s a global awakening about the vicious treatment of precious Palestinian brothers and sisters.

“Israeli occupation [and] Israeli domination has been atrocious and there’s a moral bankruptcy in the policies of the United States government in terms of enabling this, in terms of facilitating this.

READ MORE: Joe Biden: US will not send Israel weapons to launch Rafah offensive

“And any time you have a global awakening of that sort you hope later on they’ll be some follow through and execution. But the awakening to me is a morally sublime thing.

“To see people concerned and caring about other people who are just so vulnerable and subject to such vicious treatment.”

Students taking part in the Edinburgh encampment have vowed not to leave until they meet with senior management and their demands are met.

They want the University of Edinburgh to divest from all companies they believe are complicit with Israel’s war in Gaza.

It comes as US President Joe Biden said his government would not be supplying offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault in the city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians are believed to be sheltering.