A spelling mistake has made a T-shirt seller an unlikely hit among a French independence campaign movement.

       Karl Baxter, of WholeSale Clearance UK in Dorset, ordered 10,000 "Free Britney" T-shirts in reference to the singer’s legal battle about her allegedly toxic conversatorship.

       The shirts that arrived from his supplier read "Free Brittany" - but the Dorset firm still believes it can shift the misspelled stock thanks to an unlikely customer base.

       “They are really popular with the Free Breton Movement in France who have adopted them,” Mr Baxter said.

       In a blog post about the incident that went viral on social media, he added: “When we discovered they had misprinted the phrase and spelt her name like the French region, we were absolutely gutted.

       “But we are appealing to any fans of the movement to invest in one, despite the major misprint, so we can continue to fight the cause.”

       Britney Spears has been subject to a conservatorship overseen by her father, Jamie, since she had a mental breakdown in 2008.

       However, the 39-year-old singer has gone to court to demand that the legal arrangement, which she alleges is controlling and coercive, is brought to an end.

       Spears last week said she would refuse to perform as long as the conservatorship was in place. The #FreeBritney social media campaign has been established by her fans in support of her case.

       The Brittany region of France - no relation to Spears, who has had seven top 10 albums nationally - has a population of around 3.3 million, around five per cent of the total French population.

       Breton separatists seek to gain regional autonomy and defend the Breton language, spoken by around 200,000 people, while some want the region to expand to encompass the Loire-Atlantique territory.

       According to an opinion poll conducted in 2013, 18 per cent of Bretons support independence for the region.