Gavin Barwell's Twitter account replied to the porn tweets sent on Monday night

The explicit images were on his timeline and stayed up there for over a day

Explicit images showed two women dressed as schoolgirls performing a sex act

Father-of-three said he replied to the post by accident and later deleted it

Theresa May's chief of staff today said he 'regrets' replying to a late night tweet showing girl on girl porn on his official Twitter account.

The former MP's account replied to explicit images involving women dressed as schoolgirls performing sex acts and another X-rated image.

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The shocking tweet was sent at 9.21pm on Monday night and was up on his timeline for any of his 22,600 followers - which includes Cabinet ministers and senior Tory staffers - to see.

And it stayed online for a day and a half before being deleted this morning after journalists tried to get in touch with the Number 10 staffer for comment.

A Number 10 source told Mail Online: 'Gavin Barwell replied to this tweet which was in his timeline, in error.

'He has deleted the reply and regrets the embarrassment this has caused.'

The Twitter account belonging to Theresa May's chief of staff Gavin Barwell retweeted girl on girl porn.

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Mr Barwell, who is married with three sons, lost his seat of Croydon Central in last year's snap election.

But he was brought in to be the PM's right hand man soon after the Tory election disaster and the tweet will be a major embarrassment for Number 10.

His Twitter account replied to a pornographic tweet featuring two ‘teen schoolgirls’ in skimpy outfits and their ‘mom’.

It also retweeted a second highly explicit video from the website Blacked.com.

The shocking tweet comes in the wake of the Westminster sexual harassment scandal, which saw Sir Michael Fallon and Damian Green ousted from the Cabinet over allegations of misbehavior.

Mr Barwell and Number 10 did not immediately respond to Mail Online's requests for comment.

The explicit tweet was sent on Monday night and stayed online for nearly two days before they were deleted this morning journalists asked Number Ten about them

Parliament has been rocked by allegations that MPs and party officials have sexually harassed, abused and bullied their staff and lobby journalists.

Mrs May has vowed to clean up the Palace of Westminster and is introducing a new code of conduct for people who work in Parliament to adhere to.

It came after her own Cabinet was rocked by allegations which saw her lose two of her most trusted ministers - her deputy Mr Green and Defence Secretary Sir Michael - within the spate of just a couple of weeks late last year.

Today's tweets were first exposed by the Guido Fawkes website, which says they have analysed them and found that Mr Barwell's Twitter account could not have been hacked.

Today's revelation will raise questions about Mr Barwell's position at the heart of Mrs May's team in Number Ten.

The shocking tweet is a blow for Theresa May (pictured outside Stormont on Monday night) who brought Gavin Barwell in to beef up her top team after she was forced to sack her two most trusted advisers, Nick Timothy Fiona Hil

Mr Green was sacked by the PM for lying about claims porn was found on his office computer in a police raid in 2008.

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While Sir Michael was forced out over allegations he lunged at a young female political reporter several years ago.

And former Tory minister Mark Garnier was forced to apologise after it emerged he called his secretary 'sugar t**s' and sending her out to buy him a sex toy.

Today's revelation risks seeing the Conservatives being once again branded the party of sleaze - a label which they were tarred with though much of John Major's premiership in the mid 1990s.