United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has supported the statement of the Secretary of State for UK Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), Oliver Dowden, who had called the suspension of pacer Ollie Robinson by the ECB, over the top.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has suspended Ollie Robinson, who made his Test debut for England in the recent match against New Zealand at Lord’s, for his racist and sexist tweets that had been made more than a decade ago, when he was 18 years old.

The tweets made in 2012 and 2013 had resurfaced as Ollie Robinson made his Test debut, which proved to be a fruitful one as he picked 7 wickets and scored an important 42-run knock.

"England and Sussex bowler Ollie Robinson has been suspended from all international cricket pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation following historic tweets he posted in 2012 and 2013. He will not be available for selection for the second Test against New Zealand starting at Edgbaston on Thursday 10 June. Robinson will leave the England camp immediately and return to his county,” the ECB statement read.

However, the UK cultural secretary has not taken kindly to the punishment meted out to Robinson and tweeted, “Ollie Robinson’s tweets were offensive and wrong. They are also a decade old and written by a teenager. The teenager is now a man and has rightly apologized. The ECB has gone over the top by suspending him and should think again.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is "supportive" of the comments made by Oliver Dowden and his official spokesperson said, “The Prime Minister is supportive of the comments from Oliver Dowden that he made via tweet this morning. As Oliver Dowden set out, these were comments made more than a decade ago written by someone as a teenager, for which they've rightly apologized."

Robinson will now have to leave the England camp and return to his county, Sussex.

(Cricbuzz inputs)