The actress Shila Iqbal, 24, was axed by soap bosses after the shocking messages, posted on her account when she was at college six years ago, came to light.

She repeatedly used the N-word in the online posts when she was a 19-year-old student at a college in Rochdale.

One of the tweets sent from her account read: “Do not tweet me you ga*” while another stated: “I know too many noisy n****s”. She has since apologised for the tweets and deleted her entire account.

A representative for Emmerdale told: “As a consequence of historic social media posts Shila Iqbal has left her role as Aiesha Richards on Emmerdale.

“The programme took the decision not to renew her contract as soon as these posts were brought to the company’s attention.”

Shila apologised unreservedly after the tweets came to light, citing her young age as a factor.

She said: “I am terribly sorry and take full responsibility for my use of such inappropriate language.

“I regret that I too have let people down by the use of such language, albeit six years ago. I, like everyone else have a responsibility about the language I have used on social media as well as in conversation.”

“I have paid the price and can no longer continue the job I loved the most at Emmerdale. Although I was young when I made the Tweets, it was still completely wrong of me to do so and I sincerely apologise…

The actress was upgraded to an official member of Emmerdale in March this year, to play the role of Manpreet Jutla’s daughter.

After signing her contract she gushed to Digital Spy: “I am over the moon to be back at Emmerdale as a regular.