One of the Tory parliamentary candidates for Sheffield has been expelled as a town councillor after failing to attend any local authority meetings for six months.
Daniel Gage was thrown out of Dronfield Town Council after being unable to give a valid reason for his absence.
The 24-year-old, who found out days before launching his bid to win Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's Sheffield Hallam seat, said he
is "gutted".
He said: "Even though I haven't attended official council meetings I was under the impression that the 17 or 18 public meetings I attended as a councillor counted.
"I'm not going to lie – this is obviously not the best timing. I have worked really hard for my ward and have been a very good councillor."
Mr Gage, the son of former Sheffield United footballer Kevin Gage, was disqualified under the 1972 Local Government Act and has no right of appeal.
Labour seized on the news with Jack Scott, the party's parliamentary candidate for Sheffield Hallam, saying: "Far from making a breakthrough in Northern cities as David Cameron claims, the Tories can't even run a credible campaign in a constituency that they held until 1997. People in Sheffield Hallam are telling me that they want a full-time MP, something that the Lib Dems are failing to deliver and now the Tories also seem to have a problem with."
