A disposable coffee cup used by Jeremy Corbyn as sold in an online auction for £51.

The cup, which the Islington North MP had been drinking from during a visit to Nottingham, was auctioned on Ebay to raise money for Age UK.

Maria Cooke, 49, was having a drink with her partner outside the Nottingham Playhouse while hundreds of people queued to see Mr Corbyn give a speech at the nearby Albert Hall on August 20.

The Labour leadership hopeful asked Mrs Cooke if he could place his empty cup on her table and she saw an opportunity to raise many for Age UK Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, where she is employed.

Mrs Cooke said: “I thought we’d get a fiver and it was on about that for a while but the bids and number of views just went up and up.

“Charities have got to be a bit creative about how they fundraise these days so I just thought why not put it up for auction.

“We said if it was sold for more than £50 we would approach Mr Corbyn to see if he could sign it and we’ve asked his office, but I imagine he’s a bit busy with other things at the moment.”

The cup was bought by a group of students from Oxford University.

Mrs Cooke said: “We just went down to be part of the crowd and to hear what Jeremy Corbyn had to say and we’ve ended up with more than £50 raised for charity and loads of publicity. I never expected anything like this to happen.”

However, despite the success of this Mrs Cooke said she wouldn’t be following around celebrities to sell off their used cups in the future. She said: “It’s all about being creative - we’ve done coffee cups now so we’ll have to come up with a fresh idea.”