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House of Commons authorities have condemned a "highly offensive" child refugees joke that was put up in a shared kitchen for MPs.

Shadow minister Chi Onwurah shared the A4 sheet on Twitter after it was found in the room she shares with Labour, Tory and SNP MPs.

The message mocked refugees after pundits and Tory MPs questioned the age of arrivals in Britain who said they were under 18.

It showed an old man with the message: "Just £3 from you could clothe and feed this 12-year-old Syrian child for a week".

Ms Onwurah, a shadow business and energy minister, hit out at the ill-judged message posted as the Calais Jungle camp is demolished.

She told the Mirror she would find out if it broke rules on communal posters in the Houses of Parliament.

And a House of Commons spokesman later said: "It is against House rules to display offensive materials on the Parliamentary Estate.

"This is inappropriate behaviour and the poster in question has since been removed."

Ms Onwurah's researcher found the image on Monday morning in her shared kitchen in MPs' HQ 1 Parliament Street, across the road from the House of Commons, while Ms Onwurah was on the way to London from her Newcastle constituency.

"I was hoping it was left there by accident but it was actually sellotaped to one of the cupboards," Ms Onwurah said.

"On our corridor we have MPs and their staff but there are also other people - cleaners and security staff - so I don't know who put it there.

"I do think it's highly offensive."

(Image: Getty)

Ms Onwurah said the corridor housing her office is shared by Tory, Labour and SNP MPs.

Directing her comments at whoever posted the image she said: "It's a communal area, not everybody shares your sense of humour.

"There are many things I get angry about but I'm not going to force that on my work colleagues.

"I don't think it's funny. Not when you see what people have been through coming from Syria.

"People often share jokes but this is a communal area and I and others shouldn't have to suffer what you think is funny."

Ms Onwurah said her researcher took the poster down, and she was unlikely to make a formal complaint because she had already highlighted it by making it public.