Cambridge University’s first online tabloid, which includes students posing as ‘Page 3’ girls under the banner ‘Totty,’ is at the centre of a controversy.

The tabloid, called The Tab, was launched this year and got 80,000 hits in its first week.

However, a section in the Tab that features students in their underwear is at the centre of a row.

The student union”s women”s officer, Natalie Szarek, has called for Tab Totty to be taken down for good because they “reproduce and reinforce harmful attitudes towards women”.

“Semi-naked women in provocative positions are being shoved in freshers” faces. We can do better as a university,” Szarek said.

Taymoor Atighetchi, 21, a third-year student at Trinity College and one of the tabloid’s three co-founders who paid 500 pounds each to launch the website, defended The Tab, insisting it would continue its style of journalism.

“There”s a huge amount of intellectual snobbery around, mainly from those who haven”t read the site,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.