MR Men and Little Miss books should be renamed because they are sexist, Emily Thornberry has said.

The Shadow Foreign secretary suggested the 'Little' should be dropped from the female versions of the kids books because it implied that women were "less".

3 Emily Thornberry said the 'Little' implied women were less than men Credit: ITV/Good Morning Britain

She told ITV's Good Morning Britain today: "I don't like this thing about being little. I think that's my problem with the Mr Men books.

"Why do you have Mr Men, and then, Little Miss? It's something about women being less."

Her comments come after an academic study said the book series was sexist because female characters are shown as less powerful.

It found the Little Miss characters have to be "saved" in the stories more than half the time, while the Mr Men only need saving less than a third of the time.

3 Piers Morgan asked her which Little Miss book she most identified with Credit: ITVGood Morning Britain

Plus the male characters also get more to say in the books as they're given on average 12 extra words.

The findings are based on 47 Mr Men and 34 Little Miss books from 1971 to 2014.

It concludes: "Generally female characters were more passive, had less direct speech and relied on being saved more than male characters."

Ms Thornberry said if the titles were tweaked were changed to 'Ms', then she'd have no problem being known as 'Ms Trouble'.

3 Are the Little Miss and Mr Men books sexist?

In another segment of the show, journalist Eleanor Mills claimed the classic books reinforced gender stereotypes - and even compared long-armed character Mr Tickle to shamed film producer Harvey Weinstein.

She explained: "I think they are sexist. If you look at the narratives in them the women in them are always having to be saved by Mr Strong or somebody like that, and they often have to do domestic tasks for Mr Lazy.

"If you're a mum of girls what you're trying to do now is trying to get them to speak up - to be leaders."

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The topic sparked a furious debate online.

Many Good Morning Britain viewers hit back, saying the study was nonsense.

One wrote online: "The world has gone made."

Another said: "I loved the Mr Men in the 70s and read them to my children. They are just fun."

One more wrote: "They are meant to be for children, stop taking the fun out of everything. #PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad."

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