A group committed to upholding the right to freedom of speech has threated a university with legal action after it “cancelled” a Catholic chaplain because of the views he expressed about abortion and assisted suicide.

The Free Speech Union (FSU) said it will take the University of Nottingham to court unless it reversed its decision not to recognise Fr David Palmer as Catholic chaplain.

The university declined to confirm the post of Fr Palmer, 51, a priest of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, after he remarked on Twitter that abortion was the “slaughter of babies” and assisted suicide was “killing the vulnerable”.