OXFAM has said it accepts criticism from charity regulators over an alleged “party political” tweet about a “perfect storm” of poverty.

Chief executive Mark Goldring said procedures had been reviewed after the finding by The Charity Commission.

An MP complained to the commission over a June tweet of a stormy wave that warned of issues like“zero hour contracts”, “high prices” and “benefits cuts”.

It was published prior to the publication of a “Below the Breadline” report by the Oxford-based charity, Church Action on Poverty and the Trussell Trust.

The commission ruled on Friday said: “Although we accept that the charity had no intention to act in a party political way, we concluded that the charity should have done more to avoid any misperception of political bias by providing greater clarity and ensuring that the link to the ‘Below the Breadline’ report was more obvious.

“We appreciate that tweets by nature are short. Nevertheless, consideration must always be given as to how they might be perceived when received in isolation.”

Mr Goldring said: “We are pleased that the Charity Commission is clear that our tweet was motivated by the desire to draw attention to the problems facing poor people in Britain today and was not party political.

“At a time when increasing numbers of British people are surviving on food hand-outs, we have a responsibility to draw attention to their plight and challenge the politicians who have the power to help them.

“The Commission found that in relation to this tweet we did not do enough to avoid people misunderstanding our intentions and we accept that.

“We have reviewed our social media procedures to reduce the risk of tweets being misconstrued in future.”

Conservative MP Conor Burns complained about the “overtly political” tweet.