A venue in Surrey cancelled female comedian Jenny Collier's gig because there were "too many women on the bill".

Collier took to Twitter to post a picture of the letter she received which continued, "Unfortunately we need to take you out of this one. We hope that this doesn’t cause any inconvenience".

She was inundated with support on Twitter and her post has been retweeted over 5,000 times.

The comedy promoter Mirth Control has now apologised for dropping the female comic, after claiming to have come under pressure from venue Hemingways of Haslemere to reduce the number of women it had booked to appear there.

In a statement on their website, Mirth Control said, “We apologise unreservedly for any offence caused.

"The client in question [Hemingways of Haslemere] reacted to an email that we sent them (showing a bill onto which we had booked five acts so far, three of which were female) by commenting in strong terms that female comics did not suit their audience and could we take this into account please.

"This request was not to place any 'ban' on female comics only to temper the numbers in order to suit their clientele.

"We would also like to apologise to the female comic for the email she received from our team who was expressing the view of the client unedited and perhaps a little too frankly and was inappropriate in our view in it's wording"

The company is the largest independent comedy booker in the UK and it “prides itself on championing women in comedy.”

Stylist.co.uk approached Hemingways of Haslemere for a statement but they unable to comment at this time.

A host of comedians, including Sarah Millican, Jason Manford and Gina Yashere, were a few of thousands to show their support to Jenny Collier who posted this on Twitter:

"Too many women on the bill": Outrage on Twitter as venue cancels female comedian