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A furniture firm has sparked outrage by ­joking about the hated Bedroom Tax in an ­advert for mattresses.

Furniture Village boasts that customers can save almost £300 on a new one, adding: “This should help with the Bedroom Tax.”

The firm, which employs pro-bed tax Tory MP Stephen McPartland as a part-time non-executive director on a whopping salary of £42,000, has been blasted for treating the tax as a joke.

The Tories’ unfair levy has caused severe hardship for some of Britain’s poorest and most vulnerable social housing tenants and has been linked to a string of suicides.

The Sunday People has led campaigns to scrap the tax it since it was introduced two years ago.

In the advertisement, which ran in magazines earlier this month, the multi-million-pound chain offers reductions of £270 on a £1,060 luxury mattress, cutting the cost to £790.

Campaigners have expressed outrage and accused the firm of insensitivity.

A spokesman for one anti-Bedroom Tax group, said: “It’s not on. Why does this firm think Bedroom Tax is a suitable subject to endorse their advert?

“People who are paying the tax don’t have any money to spend. That’s the point of it and one of the reasons it is so unfair.

“This is an advert obviously aimed at people with money. It’s perpetuating the myth that people hit by Bedroom Tax can just go out and spend – that they’re lazy and getting a lot of benefits.

“It’s just not true. We are talking about people who in some cases are losing £25 out of the £70 they get a week due to the tax. They do not need to be the ­subject of an ­insensitive ad.”

Despite the Tories’ election victory, the Sunday People is carrying on its fight to have the tax axed.

Dubbed by the Tories as the “Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy” it raises rents by an average £14 for one unoccupied bedroom in social housing and £25 for two or more.

It has forced many people from their homes and led thousands to ­financial ruin.

Since our campaign began we have helped 5,000 foster carers win exemption, as well as families of service personnel posted abroad.

Earlier this month we revealed how £234million would be wasted if 35,000 ­disabled victims of the tax are forced to move from adapted homes.

A spokesman for Furniture Village did not wish to comment today. And McPartland, Tory MP for Stevenage, who helped defeat a Labour move to scrap the tax in a crunch vote last December, failed to respond to calls.

He faced more brickbats earlier this month when it emerged he is trousering thousands from second jobs, despite vowing to be a full-time MP.

In 2010 he told voters: “I believe it’s important we have a MP who is going to take role responsibility and treats it as a full-time job.”

But within weeks it emerged he was pocketing his five-figure sum from Furniture Village plus £35,000 a year from a recruitment firm. That’s on top of his £67,000 plus generous expenses as an MP.