Marc Anwar claims he was planning to leave Coronation Street before he was sacked

Disgraced Coronation Street actor, Marc Anwar, has claimed that he was set to leave the ITV soap before he was sensationally sacked over the weekend.

Marc was fired immediately by Corrie bosses after they were alerted to a stream of vile, racist tweets that he’d posted to his social media account.

The move left producers in a bit of a tough situation as his onscreen character, Sharif Nazir, was set to be at the centre of this year’s festive storyline, but Marc says that he was always going to be bowing out in November.

Writing on Twitter last night after he publicly apologised, Marc shared: “For the record, #marcanwar was to leave show,end of contract in November, apology is from regret, for offending not at early exit. Love all.

“No human controls my livelihood but My Allah. Never have never will grovel to anyone! Proud Muslim, proud Pakistani, very proud British. [SIC]”

Marc had posted a YouTube video earlier in the day, in which he apologised for his rant, which referred to Indians as “b*******” and “p***-drinking *****”, saying that it was “a moment of madness”.

He said in the video: “I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to anyone I may have offended with my tweets on Friday evening and especially people from India. This was never my intention.

“The language was unacceptable. I feel I have let a lot of people down. My family, my friends and my former colleagues. This I sincerely apologise for.

“On Friday evening I saw on the news children being pulled out of rubble, people being pelted with pellets, women mourning their dead in Kashmir. This upset me very deeply and in a moment of madness I ranted out and vented my anger.

“My feelings were very sincere for the people of Kashmir and I hope that everyone that everyone I have offended can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”

At the time, ITV released a statement about Marc’s comments, reading: “We are deeply shocked by the entirely unacceptable, racially offensive comments made on Twitter by Marc Anwar.

“We have talked to Marc and, as a consequence of his comments, he will not be returning to Coronation Street with immediate effect.”