A hashtag campaign has trended in an attempt to save Tom Watson’s intern from the sack on Twitter, following a mistakenly sent tweet from the MP’s account that used the term ‘rape’ in a supposedly humorous tweet.

“I should log out of my Twitter so that my intern doesn't twit-rape me...," the Labour MP’s account tweeted, and was soon followed by the message “My boss is in a meeting, i've made a terrible mistake, im very sorry everyone, it wasn't meant to be offensive! logging him off now! sorry!”

The original tweet has apparently retweeted over a hundred times at the time of writing.

Watson then took over and sent the following message: “I sincerely apologise for the recent tweet. A lesson learned for a young intern. She's also very sorry. I will deal with the matter offline.”

Now the hashtag #savetheintern is trending alongside messages of support or discussing the blunder.