Labor MP Sam Dastyari has been praised for his calm response to a racist ambush by far-right group Patriot Blue.

Several male members of the group confronted the politician with racist taunts while he was ordering drinks at a pub in Melbourne on Wednesday night.

The men filmed themselves as they called the MP, who is of Iranian heritage, a “monkey”, a “terrorist” and told him to go home to Iran.

“They are the sickening face of white nationalists in this country. What’s happening is our politics is heading into a very, very ugly place,” Senator Dastaryi told Channel Nine on Thursday.

“It makes me feel small, makes me feel horrible, it makes you feel kind of terrible and that’s what they are designed to do.”

Senator Dastyari is considering a legal response to the incident, which may have infringed race discrimination laws.

The thugs also accused the senator of accepting money from China, and asked if his alcoholic drink was “halal certified”.

“Say hi to Patriots Front from me,” Senator Dastyari said.

“Nah nah, this is Patriot Blue mate,” one replied. “It’s completely different.”

The senator continued to order at the bar, calmly telling the men to go away.

“You are racist rednecks. You follow me everywhere I go,” he said.

“Honestly, I think you guys are a bunch of racists and I don’t really have time for you.

“I’m not going to bother with you guys. You are just embarrassing yourselves.”

After the men repeatedly taunted “What race is Islam?”, fellow Labor MP Tim Watts approached the cameraman and retorted with: “What race is dickhead?”

Senator Dastyari’s calm response was hailed on social media.

https://twitter.com/PMOnAir/status/928194970703372289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Fnews%2F2017-11-09%2Fsam-dastyari-ambushed-in-pub%2F9132642

Good on Sam Dastyari for standing up and calling these idiots out for what they are. There's no place for this sort of stuff in Australia.

— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) November 8, 2017

https://twitter.com/joshgshepherd/status/928376673732460545

He later posted on Twitter himself to denounce the men as “cowardly” and to cheer Mr Watts’ “dickhead” quip.

Tonight will always be the night that we got harassed by cowardly white nationalists & @TimWattsMP yelled “what race is dickead” #strayamate

— Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) November 8, 2017

The Patriot Blue group have protested against changing the date of Australia Day and organised counter-protests at pro-refugee rallies.

The group’s Facebook page contains footage of similar filmed stunts.

One post shows members of Patriot Blue, Reclaim Australia, Party for Freedom and the United Patriots Front posing together for a photo.

The True Blue group later posted on Facebook: “An Iranian born Senator calls me a Racist I’m gonna call him a Terrorist – Fairs Fair.”