CULTURE Secretary Ben Bradshaw sparked outrage yesterday when he made what was interpreted as a bad taste remark on the Internet about David Cameron's dead son.

The Exeter MP used the social networking website Twitter to counter comments by the Tory leader about wanting to make Labour's "big government" smaller if his party won the next election.

But Mr Bradshaw's message on the site was seen by hundreds of members of the public to be referring to the care of Mr Cameron's son Ivan, who was born with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and required constant care until his death in February this year at the age of six.

In a "tweet" on the website, Mr Bradshaw, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, said: "The camerons (sic) got good nhs care thanks to Labour's investment and reform. is this the 'big government' he derides?"

The message was viewed by almost 2,000 people who follow Mr Bradshaw's comments on the site, which has the handle @BenBradshawMP. They then repeated the comments on their own pages for hundreds of thousands of others to see.

And they attracted scores of complaints from people including political satirist Armando Ianucci, who encouraged people to see what the former BBC journalist turned Labour politician had said.

The creator of The Day Today and In the Thick of It wrote: "See latest @BenBradshawMP for gob-hammeringly insensitive political point-scoring.

"We're truly entering The Dawn of The UberT***."

His remarks were repeated by hundreds of other online users of the website.

Some users of the site were equally forthright. Several called on the Exeter MP to resign, with one calling it an "unbelievably desperate cheap shot".

Another, Russ Hope, from London, wrote: "For politics so pernicious and vacuous it makes you want to vomit, go to @BenBradshawMP. Stop the world, I want off."

Mr Bradshaw later backtracked from the comments, writing: "It wasn't meant to be offensive. Point is they will the ends but not the means. Need positive government to deliver these things."

The Western Morning News approached Mr Bradshaw yesterday to explain the original remark.

His office issued a statement clarifying his position regarding Mr Cameron but not mentioning the offending message.

The statement read: "Like millions of other people in this country, David Cameron says his experience of the NHS has been good. But at the same time, he blamed in his conference speech the country's ills on something he calls 'big government'.

"The NHS hasn't improved by accident. It's improved as a result of the hard work and dedication of NHS staff and decisions made by Government. Those decisions have included much more investment, better pay and targets, which the Tories say they would scrap."

The Conservatives declined to comment on the issue.