More than 1,000 people have signed a petition against a ‘disgraceful and derogatory’ Manchester club night offering a 'free midget' as part of its VIP table package.

The Oxford Club was slammed by a charity this week for offering ‘a Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum midget [who] will wait on your table and dance on demand’ with the £850 ‘Ballers Booth’ package at last night’s Wonderland club night.

Now hundreds of people around the world have signed an online petition launched by the Restricted Growth Association condemning the event.

The petition reads: “We believe such an event is distasteful and discriminatory, and can encourage abuse towards people with restricted growth. We also find the use of the word ‘midget’ deeply offensive.

“We cannot imagine the Oxford or any other night club offering such a ‘package’ with a person of any other minority – someone who is Jewish, disabled, or from the LGBT community, for example. Clearly, dwarfism remains one of the last acceptable prejudices in our society. This has to change.

“We condemn the Oxford nightclub for deciding to host such disgraceful and derogatory events.”

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The petition has attracted support from all over the world, with 1,029 signatories at the last count.

Among them is Angela Holloway, from Stockport, who wrote: “This event is nothing more than a freak show treating people as objects to be humiliated and exploited because of the way they look.

“It helps to promote bullying and discrimination and ruins lives. It must be illegal to use humans like this.”

Steve Hynd, from Bristol, wrote: “Every day people with restricted growth get both physical and verbal abuse thrown at them. Part of why this happens is because if culture that doesn’t value them but instead sees them as entertainment, a point of comedy, a thing there for the rest of the world’s pleasure.

"It is in this mindset that people think it acceptable to pick dwarfs up, to try and balance a pint on their heads, or in this case, host a ‘midget night’ in a mainstream entertainment venues.

“Just imagine if those things happened to any other minority? There would be outrage.”

It appears the backlash did not make the Central Street club reconsider - its Twitter account has retweeted a picture of two of the entertainers in their Alice in Wonderland costumes at last night’s event.

Another charity, Little People UK, said it supported the entertainers themselves but branded the controversial club night ‘humiliating and degrading’.

A spokeswoman said: “We support everyone, regardless of their profession, and therefore would not comment on any individual. However, we do feel it is important to point out the offensive language used within the ‘job description’; midget is a highly offensive term and is often misused in society today.

“We would also like to show our disapproval of the intention to make someone ‘dance on demand’, this we feel is humiliating and degrading to anyone and we would question whether this is acceptable at all.”

The M.E.N has contacted a representative of the club night for a comment and is awaiting a response.