The Prime Minister has welcomed a decision by Facebook to take down the page used by the far-right party Britain First.

Mrs May told the Commons that she welcomed the news and hoped other companies would follow suit.

Facebook says the decision to remove the pages was made after Britain First had ignored a final warning about the posting of material that broke its community standards.

In a statement Facebook said: "Content posted on the Britain First Facebook page and the pages of party leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen has repeatedly broken our Community Standards.”

"We recently gave the administrators of the pages a written final warning, and they have continued to post content that violates our Community Standards.

"As a result, in accordance with our policies, we have now removed the official Britain First Facebook page and the pages of the two leaders with immediate effect.”

"We do not do this lightly, but they have repeatedly posted content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups, which disqualifies the Pages from our service."

London's Mayor, Sadiq Khan has also issued a statement.

"Britain First is a vile and hate-fuelled group. Their sick intentions to incite hatred within our society via social media are reprehensible, and Facebook's decision to remove their content is welcome."

Earlier this month, Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, were jailed after being found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment at a trial in Kent.

The pair were arrested in May last year for offences relating to their behaviour during the trial of four men, who were later convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl.

More than two million people had liked the group's Facebook page.

Twitter has also suspended the party’s account.