The New Yorker magazine has dropped Steve Bannon from a festival it was organising after a backlash against his inclusion on the programme.

Mr Bannon, the former Trump aide and Breitbart news chair, had been announced as one of the high-profile figures set to attend next month's The New Yorker Festival in New York.

New Yorker editor David Remnick told the New York Times he would hold a "serious and even combative conversation" with the far-right provocateur at the event.

Other guests announced included Jim Carrey, Emily Blunt, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Haruki Murakami, Jimmy Fallon, Zadie Smith and Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg.

However, the inclusion of Mr Bannon on the programme quickly prompted a backlash, including from some staff of the New Yorker magazine and some of the others set to attend.

Kathryn Schulz, one of the magazine's writers, said she was "beyond appalled" and had made that clear to her editor.

Jim Carrey insisted he could never be on the same programme as Steve Bannon:

Bannon? And me? On the same program?

Could never happen.

— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) September 3, 2018

Filmmakers Judd Apatow and Boots Riley were among the others who objected:

If Steve Bannon is at the New Yorker festival I am out. I will not take part in an event that normalizes hate. I hope the @NewYorker will do the right thing and cancel the Steve Bannon event. Maybe they should read their own reporting about his ideology.

— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) September 3, 2018

Just found out Steve Bannon is doing event the @NewYorker festival that I was gonna be at until the moment I learned he would be there.

I wont be there if he's gonna be there.

— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) September 3, 2018

"I've re-considered"

Amid the growing backlash, New Yorker editor David Remnick said he'd changed his mind about the interview with Steve Bannon.

In a statement, he observed: "The point of an interview, a rigorous interview, particularly in a case like this, is to put pressure on the views of the person being questioned [...] It's obvious no matter how tough the questioning, Bannon is not going to burst into tears and change his view of the world. He believes he is right and that his ideological opponents are mere 'snowflakes'.

"The question is whether an interview has value in terms of fact, argument, or even exposure, whether it has value to a reader or an audience."

He added: "I don't want well-meaning readers and staff members to think that I've ignored their concerns. I've thought this through and talked to colleagues - and I've re-considered. I've changed my mind.

"There is a better way to do this. Our writers have interviewed Steve Bannon for The New Yorker before, and if the opportunity presents itself I'll interview him in a more traditionally journalistic setting as we first discussed, and not on stage."

Mr Bannon, meanwhile, told the New York Times that Mr Remnick "was gutless when confronted by the howling online mob".