A Tory candidate has been suspended after a leaflet in his name claimed Labour had spread hepatitis in the local ward.
A leaflet promoting Kamran Razzaq, who is standing for a seat on Dudley Council in the 3 May elections, included the disease under a list of things “Labour have delivered” to the area.
Christian Calgie, a parliamentary aide, tweeted a photo of the leaflet. He said he did not want to embarrass the party by drawing attention to the leaflet, but wrote: “Wtf”.
Calgie added that “things that need to be quality checked” and accused the Conservative party HQ of leaving some things in the hands of “nutters in local associations.”
A Conservative Party spokeswoman told HuffPost: “Kamran Razzaq has been suspended and an investigation is underway.”
Patrick Harley, the Conservative leader of the council, declined to comment and referred HuffPost to CCHQ for comment.
The leaflet appears to refer to an outbreak of the disease at a primary school within the Cradley and Wollescote ward, where Razzaq is a candidate.
The outbreak was revealed by local Labour councillor Tim Crumpton, who was later berated by the council for broadcasting confidential information, which he denied, The Stourbridge News reported.
The ward has three Labour councillors, though Dudley Council is under Conservative leadership.
HuffPost understands the local Conservative Party leadership stopped the leaflet from being distributed further when they became aware of it.
Pete Lowe, the local Labour leader, told HuffPost the leaflet was “the most bizarre I have seen in my 30 years in politics.”
He welcomed Razzaq’s suspension and added: “Words fail me... Politics should be above these sorts of slurs and outrageous accusations.”
Crumpton, who is the Labour candidate for the seat, told HuffPost the leaflet was “belittling” the hepatitis outbreak.
“I’ve never seen anything quite that pathetic,” he added.
He added that Margot James, the local Conservative MP, had apologised to Labour for the leaflet.