MPs tell Donald Trump to delete his account – and tell Twitter to do it for him if he won't

Twitter has suggested that it won't moderate the President's account because it is newsworthy

British MPs say that Donald Trump should delete his Twitter account. If he won't get rid of his profile, then Twitter should do it for him, various politicians said in Parliament.

The calls came after the President retweeted posts from Britain First, the far-right extremist group. The decision to share the posts was criticised by Theresa May – and Mr Trump then attacked the prime minister for that move.

The President's various posts have prompted a diplomatic row and condemnation from much of the British establishment. Now politicians say that the President's Twitter account should be deleted, to avoid future belligerence in the future.

Conservative MP Peter Bone suggested that the President should be persuaded by Ms May – with whom he previously had a close relationship – to remove his account.

"One of the advantages of having such a special relationship with the United States is that when a friend tells us we have done something dreadfully wrong, we tend to listen," he said. "Would not the world be a better place if the Prime Minister could persuade the President of the United States to delete his Twitter account?"

Home secretary Amber Rudd didn't explicitly endorse Mr Bone's view, but suggested that a large number of people may agree with it. "I am sure that many of us share his view," she said, and expressed her hope that the President would heed the words of Theresa May.

Others suggested that if Mr Trump won't delete his own account, then Twitter should do it for him.

"About a month ago, the most popular man in the world was a last-day employee of Twitter who unplugged the account of the President of the United States," said former Conservative minister Tim Loughton. "Was he not right? If Twitter is genuine in its commitment to fight hate crime online, it should have no hesitance in taking down the Twitter account of the first citizen of the US, as it would that of any other citizen of the world who peddled such hate crime."

Amber Rudd called the suggestion "interesting" and said that she is sure the "chief executive of Twitter will have heard" it. "We will leave it to Twitter to decide what action to take," she said.

Twitter has suggested that it won't remove Mr Trump's tweets or the account posting them because they are judged to be newsworthy, even if they break the rules. The tweets are still entirely visible on the President's account, and the account itself appears to be running as normal.

"As appropriate, we take action against content that violates our terms of service, including hiding some content behind sensitive media filters," a Twitter spokesperson said.

"As our Help Center notes: "To help ensure people have an opportunity to see every side of an issue, there may be the rare occasion when we allow controversial content or behavior which may otherwise violate our Rules to remain on our service because we believe there is a legitimate public interest in its availability. Each situation is evaluated on a case by case basis and ultimately decided upon by a cross-functional team."

Much of the rest of the debate focused on Mr Trump's state visit. MPs repeatedly suggested that visit should be cancelled, but Ms Rudd only repeated the Government's line that "the invitation has been extended and accepted, and we have yet to make the arrangements".

At another point, Ms Rudd was asked if she could tell Parliament "how politicians taking to Twitter has led to an improvement in modern civilisation". She said such a question was "beyond my capacity today", but agreed that politicians "could benefit from a little more considered thought and pauseful contemplation before we press reply to Twitter attacks".