Samantha Cameron has been criticised for seeking unpaid interns for her upmarket fashion label Cefinn which may breach minimum wage rules.

Describing itself as “creating chic, grown-up fashion for the multitasking urban woman,” Cefinn is currently advertising for a PR and marketing intern to carry out market research, manage samples and assist the brand’s art director in “production and content creation.” The internship is understood to have been for a three-month role.

The wife of former prime minister, David Cameron, set up her label in 2017 and it received a £2.6m cash injection from Conservative party backer David Brownlow last year. The brand charges about £300 for dresses, nearly £500 for coats and trousers at £200. The company, which is said to employ just 10 people, lost £913,055 in the year to October 2018 according to Companies House accounts.

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Tanya de Grunwald of Graduate Fog, which has highlighted the Cefinn internship as part of its campaign for better treatment of young workers, said she had reported the company to HMRC.

Under employment rules, anyone classed as a worker should be paid the minimum wage. Defining a worker relies on multiple factors, which might include an expectation that the person turns up for work each day, that they work set hours and that they undertake tasks valuable to the business. The government said that only interns who are job shadowing, under 16 and doing a short period of work experience or carrying out less than a year’s work as part of an higher education course can be unpaid.

But HMRC also says people doing a placement on a volunteer basis are not counted as workers.

De Grunwald said: “What is Samantha Cameron thinking? This advert clearly describes a skilled job involving real work – which means that Cefinn should offer a proper, legal wage. Without pay, this CV-boosting opportunity is only open to those who can afford to work for free – everyone else is automatically excluded. For all the claims that Mrs Cameron’s new label is ‘chic’, this behaviour is just plain cheap.”

She said unpaid internships either led to exploitation of individuals who were working for free and excluded people who could not afford to do so from sought after roles in industries such as fashion.

Cefinn declined to comment on its internship, but confirmed in a now-deleted tweet that the role is unpaid.