James Arthur quits Twitter for good after his homophobic slur causes outrage

By Rebecca Davison

PUBLISHED: 20:48 EST, 16 November 2013 | UPDATED: 20:48 EST, 16 November 2013

He's quickly become one of the most outspoken celebrities on Twitter and now James Arthur has decided to quit the social networking site for good after being criticised for making a homophobic slur.

The 25-year-old called unknown rapper Micky Worthless 'a f***king queer' in a rap which spread online after Micky recorded a song mocking James for being an X Factor puppet.

James Tweeted: '#LOVE to my fans but I'm coming off twitter for good. HQ will be doing all my tweets from now on. PEACE!'

The slur caused huge offence with celebrities taking to Twitter to criticise James for his choice of words.

Little Britain star Matt Lucas wrote 'F*** you @JamesArthur23 for using the phrase 'f***ing queer' in your latest track. F*** you.'

And former X Factor star Lucy Spraggan showed her disgust by writing: 'Nice one,' and when asked by a fan if her comment was a reference to James, she replied: 'Yes it is.'

She added to another fan: 'People kill themselves every day because there's insults like that around. It's not something a role model should say. #donthate.'

It's not the first time James has caused offence. He's had a long-standing feud with fellow X Factor alumni Matt Cardle on the site.

The row started between the rivals when James rubbished Matt's music, calling it for 'bedwetters'.

In fact, when former Spice Girl Melanie C and Matt Cardle appeared on The Paul O'Grady Show on Friday, to perform their duet Loving You, Melanie said that she thought James had gone too far.

'He's upset a lot of people,' she told the chat show host.

James Arthur had already taken on one of the world's biggest boy bands, One Direction, in an extraordinary set of Twitter posts on Twitter.

He wrote: 'And f**k boybands! Bring on the hate I don't wanna be popular. Apart from JLS who are genuinely the coolest people I've met in music.'

In now deleted tweets, he wrote that One Direction's Louis Tomlinson had acted like a 'little b**ch' towards him ever since he called the band 'a marketing product' earlier in the year.

On Friday night, James Arthur performed on Children In Need.

He will release his new single, called Recovery on December 15th. It will be the third single from his self-titled debut album.