Dawn Butler MP has defended her Twitter claim that the Prime Minister is “sh***ing on the working class” after it sparked a social media storm.

Speaking exclusively to the Times, the Labour MP stood by the “sentiment” of the Tweet, which drew heavy criticism after she posted it to her Twitter account on Wednesday.

The post, which the MP revealed was composed in the House of Commons chamber after a fellow Labour MP cracked a joke, said: “Cameron looks like a kid whose just done a poo said a friend. Yes it does feel like he’s Sh***ing all over the working class doesn’t it”.

The MP said: “Whilst I could have said it in a different and more professional way ultimately I meant what I said because people are suffering. It was a reaction to an out of touch and smug PM.”

Ms Butler insisted the Tweet, which was a reaction to her female colleague’s comments on the Prime Minister’s housing bill, should be seen in the context of a heated debate about plans to knock down council estates to make way for affordable housing developments.

She added: “The sentiment of what I said was correct – the people that want to make a fuss of this should make a fuss of what the Government is doing to working class people with the housing bill.

“All this fuss is like a red herring or a ‘dead cat on the table’ for what’s actually going on.”

Within a matter of hours the post was re-Tweeted 167 times and garnered 129 “likes”.

It has also prompted a number of online “memes,” setting the comments alongside images of the Prime Minister.

But it also provoked dozens of angry responses from Twitter users, some of whom questioned whether her decidedly unparliamentary language was setting a bad example to her constituents.

Lyuben Vachkov tweeted: “I pity that you are letting down those you represent by acting like a fool.”

Conservative councillor for Brondesbury Park Joel Davidson, described the comment as an “outrageous slur” and accused the Ms Butler of making a “frankly embarrassing” statement “unfitting of a public servant.”

He added: “This latest outburst is frankly embarrassing. As a public servant I don’t think people with think her time is best used making divisive insults about our Prime Minister and making frivolous jokes to show off to her hard left friends.”

The plain-speaking MP raised eyebrows last week when she suggested in an interview with the Times that her constituents would like to see her give the prime minister a new year’s “slap”.