A trader has called on Oxford East MP Andrew Smith to ditch his latest advertising campaign, claiming it labels him a benefit cheat.

Russell Crawford is outraged by adverts being used by the Government's Department for Work and Pensions to highlight its efforts to stop people illegally claiming unemployment benefit when they have a job.

The poster that has offended Mr Crawford

The campaign, which includes posters and TV, radio and newspaper adverts, features a market trader ringed by a circle of light. Underneath a slogan reads 'Targeting Benefit Fraud. We're on to you'.

A giant poster is on display at the Pear Tree roundabout in north Oxford. Mr Crawford, who wants the poster banned

Mr Crawford, of Eynsham, said he was incensed by the poster portraying a frying-pan seller as a benefit cheat -- he sells pans on his stall at Oxford's Gloucester Green market.

Mr Smith, who is the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said honest people had nothing to fear from the campaign.

But Mr Crawford, chairman of the Gloucester Green branch of the Market Traders' Federation, and a trader in Oxford for 38 years, said: "It's completely out of order. We've asked for them to be taken down, but we were told the poster wasn't aimed at market traders. I saw three in one morning in Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Then I was filling up at Pear Tree services and there it was, staring me in the face."

Mr Smith said there were no plans to drop the posters.

He said: "If Mr Crawford saw our posters three times in one morning, I think that's a tribute to the impact of our campaign."