Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein has hit out at an ongoing legislative push to suspend three Arab members of parliament, a move that could result in the resignation of the other 10 Arab MKs.

Mr Edelstein, on a trip to London last week to meet British MPs and Foreign Office ministers, said: "It would be terrible not to have Arab representatives in the Knesset," although he insisted that it is "not going to happen, ever".

The "Suspension Bill" was initiated after the three members of the Balad Arab nationalist party last month met the relatives of Palestinians who had been killed while attacking Israelis.

Mr Edelstein said: "I wish this legislation were not there." He pointed to growing ideological extremism within parliament - on both Jewish and Arab sides - as one of the reasons for the bill. "There is more and more dragging of the centre towards the extreme right and the extreme left." He added: "Fortunately the bill is not happening."

However, the Knesset Speaker, who lives in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, said: "If we have more common places in our society… we wouldn't have MKs shaking hands with those who openly supported terrorists and called them martyrs.

"To say that these three Balad MKs represent their population is to offend the Arab population. They represent a small minority of voters."