The tweet on popular social media site Twitter caused an instant uproar, going viral before it could be deleted and forcing an apology from East Renfrewshire Council.

The message which read: “Alistair shut yer puss!!!” Appeared during Monday (August 25) night’s live televised referendum debate between Better Together leader Alistair Darling and Scottish first minister Alex Salmond.

The message was removed a short time later but not before it had been re-tweeted and captured by amused and outraged social media users.

One user even called for the un-named employee to be sacked, saying: “Whoever is responsible for that should be out of a job tomorrow.” However voters from both sides of the referendum divide have leapt to the council’s defence, with Twitter user Adam Hodes saying: “Inappropriate yes, but an easy mistake to make and it would be a travesty if the culprit were to lose their job over it.” No voter Iain McGill tweeted: “Mistakes happen, and when they’re clearly mistakes, and funny, and learnt from they’re fine.” Another user, Jan Lewicki, said: “Ridiculous! You should be unbiased. I will be complaining tomorrow, can you give me the number so I can make a complaint?” The council issued an immediate apology and further clarified the next day, saying: “We would like to apologise for any offence caused by an inappropriate tweet during the referendum debate.

“This was an unacceptable use of the council’s Twitter account. This would appear to be a genuine human error, which we are investigating, and measures are in place to make sure that this does not happen again.” The second televised debate between Salmond and Darling was held at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in front of a packed studio audience.

In a heated affair both sides traded blows on currency, oil and gas, the NHS and welfare reforms over the course of an hour and a half.

Scotland will got to the polls on September 18 to decide on Scotland’s future, with no clear frontrunner in the run up to the polling date.