BROXTOWE MP Anna Soubry has been criticised for employing a man who previously held up a sign saying "Bring Back Slavery".

The Conservative MP temporarily employed Craig Cox to help set up her office after she was elected on May 6.

Mr Cox hit the headlines in 2008 after holding up the sign at a "role-playing exercise" at a training session for student union officers at the University of York.

However, he claims he did not know what the sign said, having picked it up from the floor, and publicly apologised for it at the time.

Steve Barber, a Broxtowe Borough Labour councillor who used to work for former MP Nick Palmer, said: "William Wilberforce abolished slavery over 100 years ago and it's a shameful legacy that we have.

"Even to joke about that is appallingly bad taste.

"Anna obviously doesn't vet her staff properly when she employs them. If she was aware of this then she's open to every bit of criticism as Craig is."

However, Miss Soubry, who is only employing Mr Cox until tomorrow, said she knew it "wouldn't be long before Labour got hold of it".

She said: "He knows my view on it. He was about 19 at the time, he made a full apology for it. I know he regrets, hugely, doing something so stupid that upset other people.

"I've never hidden it, we would have thought there were more important things [to debate]."

Mr Cox, who has been involved with the party since he was 15, has previously worked for Francis Maude and Nick Herbert. He was also president of the Conservative Association at the University of Nottingham in 2007 and 2008.

He said: "I apologised at the time for holding it up but I didn't write it, it was written by somebody else.

"I completely condemn all motions of racism. It was held up by mistake and I was cleared unequivocally with no backlash. I'm gay myself and understand the sensitivity of minority groups, I understand how awful and painful it can be."

He explained people were holding up inflammatory signs as a "role-playing exercise", organised by the Student Union, and he accidentally picked up the sign thinking it was something else.

"If I could turn back time and rip it up I would," he said.