Sun columnist Trevor Kavanagh has stepped down from his role as a board member at the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) after two years.

Kavanagh was forced to apologise to the board last year over a comment piece criticising Channel 4 News reader Fatima Manji at a time when she was pursuing a complaint against The Sun.

Later in the year he also apologised for using the term “The Muslim Problem” in an article about sex grooming gangs, but accused critics of a “concocted explosion of Labour and Islamic hysteria”.

IPSO chief executive Matt Tee said: “Trevor brought valuable knowledge of mass market newspapers in his two years on the Board. That insight is very important to IPSO’s work.”

Kavanagh was two years into a three-year contact when he stepped down at the end of last year.

IPSO is currently advertising for a new board member with recent senior experience in a national mass-market newspaper. Apply here.