The Norwich-based co-creator of Father Ted and The IT Crowd has been removed from Twitter for breaching the site’s rules on “hateful conduct”.

Graham Linehan, who usually tweets under the handle @Glinner, allegedly tweeted “men aren’t women tho” (sic) in response to a post by the Women’s Institute, who wished a happy Pride to all its trans members.

A Twitter spokesman said in a statement: “The account has been permanently suspended after repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation.”

According to reports in the national press, a post credited to Linehan’s handle ‘Glinner’ on parenting website Mumsnet asked for support.

In the post the user, who has not been confirmed as Mr Linehan, said they had submitted an appeal with Twitter.

It is not the first time Mr Linehan has attracted criticism for his views on the trans community.

Last week, he briefly lost his blue tick verification after several of his tweets were reported, but he later regained it and Twitter said he had been unverified in error.

In 2018, he was given a verbal harassment warning by West Yorkshire Police after being reported by transgender activist Stephanie Hayden.

Ms Hayden had reported him for transphobia and accused him of deadnaming her, referring to her by names used before she transitioned.

She first reported Mr Linehan to Norfolk Constabulary in September 2018.

At the time, Mr Linehan said: “The police asked me to stop contacting someone I had no intention of contacting.

“It was a bit like asking me to never contact Charlie Sheen.”