Twitter has suspended Ralf Little after he parodied an official Tory Party page during last night’s general election debate.

The Royle Family actor turned his account into a fake Conservative Party Press Office in response to an official Tory account rebranding itself as a fact-checking service.

And he wasn’t alone – dozens of fake accounts sprang up to mock Boris Johnson as the Conservative Party’s so-called ‘fact checker’ made claims about Jeremy Corbyn and declared the Prime Minister the ‘clear winner’ of the debate.

Twitter warned that any further attempts to ‘mislead people’ during the election campaign will result in action.

But the social media giant has been accused of ‘going after the little people’ for punishing the actor and other joke accounts, while the Conservative Party remains unpunished.

Little changed his Twitter name to ‘Conservative Party Press Orifice’ and posted a string of Tweets stating ‘Jeremy Corbyn had won the debate’.

He tweeted: ‘Claims that Boris Johnson is always lying are categorically untrue. Sometimes his lips are not moving.’

Journalist James O’Brien revealed Little’s account had been suspended and tweeted a message from the actor: ‘Just been logged out of my twitter account without explanation.

‘Assume I’ve been suspended. Which is fine. But only if the @CCHQPress account is suspended for the same thing.

‘Please continue to press the issue with twitter in my absence. Ralf x’

The actor was flooded with messages of support while Twitter was slammed for having an ‘utter howler’.

Journalist Philip Murray tweeted: ‘One rule for the powerful, one rule for those holding a mirror up to them.

‘Should’ve either both been suspended or neither. Twitter is having an utter howler.’

Another wrote: ‘Obvious parodies are clearly not a problem. Presenting a partisan account as independent is something that must be avoided.’

The author Aaron Gillies, who is known by his Twitter handle ‘Technically Ron’, also made a number of jokes during the debate while pretending to be ‘FactCheckUK’ – the same handle used by the Conservative Party.

He wrote: ‘I pretended to be Fact Check UK for a few hours last night for a laugh and was locked out of my account and reported for impersonation. Guessing @CCHQPress had similar issues… Nah? Nope.

‘Nothing has consequences anymore? Cool.’

Both Gillies and Little had verified ‘blue-tick’ accounts, which denote a user is ‘genuine’. If a verified account is found to be impersonating another page, they can lose their blue-tick or be suspended.

In a statement, Twitter said: ‘Twitter is committed to facilitating healthy debate throughout the UK general election.

‘We have global rules in place that prohibit behaviour that can mislead people, including those with verified accounts.

‘Any further attempts to mislead people by editing verified profile information – in a manner seen during the UK Election Debate – will result in decisive corrective action.’

The Tory party has been heavily criticised for the move from across the political spectrum – as well as by official fact-checking organisations.

The @CCHQpress account is verified by Twitter, displaying a blue tick which is intended to denote that a user is genuine.

Independent fact-checking charity Full Fact tweeted: ‘It is inappropriate and misleading for the Conservative press office to rename their twitter account ‘factcheckUK’ during this debate.

‘Please do not mistake it for an independent fact checking service such as @FullFact, @FactCheck or @FactCheckNI.’

Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly later attempted to defend the move.

He told BBC Newsnight after the debate: ‘The Twitter handle of the CCHQ press office remained @CCHQPress so it’s clear the nature of the site.

‘The reason we did that is because we were calling out the inaccuracies, the lies that were coming out during the debate. The NHS is not for sale.’

He replied ‘I disagree’ when told the party had been misleading the public, and said the change would have been an idea from the party’s ‘digital team’.

Asked if he knew about the change, Mr Cleverly said: ‘The digital team have got a remit, I set that remit, they work within the remit and I’m absolutely comfortable with them calling out when the Labour Party puts what they know to be complete fabrications in the public domain – and we will call that out every time they do it.’

The Liberal Democrat press office posted an image suggesting they were reporting the account to Twitter for ‘pretending to be me or someone else’.

They tweeted: ‘And people wonder why trust in politics has been eroded @CCHQPress.’

Labour’s David Lammy tweeted: ‘The Conservative Party press office @CCHQPress rebranding themselves as ‘FactCheckUK’ shows what disdain this party and this government has for the truth.”

‘The Electoral Commission must investigate and punish this blatant attempt to decieve (sic) the public.’

The account description during the debate was ‘Fact Checking Labour from CCHQ’.

After the debate finished the account reverted to its regular Conservative Party branding.

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