An online news article which referred to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as “Jihadi Jez” has been taken down by its publisher.

The blog post, by a Sky News journalist, quoted an anonymous source that referred to Mr Corbyn using the phrase as a name in its headline.

A petition calling for the piece to be taken down had reached 52,000 signatures by Monday afternoon when the writing was pulled from the internet.

A “page not found” error is now displayed at the web address where the piece was previously located.

The article said some within Labour were critical of Mr Corbyn’s suggestion that the Isis spokesperson known by the media as “Jihadi John” should have faced trial.

The petition, instigated by Michelle Ryan, criticised the piece for its use of an anonymous source for the phrase, asking: “Without any transparency how can we trust it?”

The web address after the item's removal (Sky News)

“To equate the labour leader with a terrorist who zealously murdered innocent people is not just an insult to Jeremy Corbyn, but it is an insult to all of Emwazi’s victims, some of whom have expressed similar sentiments regarding a preference for trial, as those articulated by Jeremy Corbyn,” the petition read.

“We demand Sky News remove this disgusting tasteless headline instantly, followed by an apology for the frivolous and disgraceful use of the term jihadi in this way.”