WOMEN in Worcester have lampooned Labour's pink 'battle bus' campaign - taking to social media to label it "patronising" and "sexist twaddle".

The controversial bus, which rolled into the city last month, has led to a deluge of hostile comments on the Facebook page of Councillor Joy Squires, the party's parliamentary candidate.

Last Friday the politician posted a video on the site of shadow women's minister Gloria De Piero, who came to Worcester in early March for the party's 'Woman to Woman' campaign in the hot pink vehicle.

Cllr Squires, who is hoping to dump Tory Robin Walker from office next month, wrote "let's make a better future for women in Worcester" alongside it.

As of today there are more than 40 comments, with women calling it "sexist rubbish", "garbage", "cynical" and "misguided".

Mrs De Piero is touring the UK in a bright pink bus to focus on how women have found life tough under the Coalition Government.

Cllr Squires has responded to the criticism by acknowledging it could be deemed controversial, and says the number of Facebook 'likes' for the video still outweigh the 'dislikes' despite the hostile reaction.

Facebook poster Lucy Barkas, who left one comment, wrote: "I was offended by the women's targeted marketing.

"I found it sexist, inappropriate and misguided."

Poster Wendy Coggan wrote "I hate all this 'women' stuff, so cynical, count me out" while Jayne Thomas called it "very sexist", saying "not all women think this way".

Hannah Windross posted: "Load of sexist rubbish. Why do these things only effect women? Can't men use the NHS any more?"

Of the 43 comments on the page yesterday, only around five were actively defending the campaign, with around the rest either directly attacking it or debating Labour and the Conservatives in general.

It's been actively viewed more than 12,000 times.

Cllr Squires said she is glad it provoked debate, adding that despite the criticism it's been 'liked' around 50 times.

I found it very interesting," she said.

"The whole thing, 'Woman to Woman' was controversial from the beginning, it's fascinating how some people don't seem to like women's issues being highlighted.

"Raising issues about women is always going to be controversial because there are those who don't think we should have that debate, but I don't share that view.

"It's no bad thing to provoke discussion, social media does allow for people to express themselves quite forcefully and I've no problem with that at all, everyone was polite.

"But I don't think the issues are controversial, I thought it was worth publicising."