“You should have slept with mayor’s wife instead”: Sheffield Hallam Tories in a mess

So reads the headline in today’s edition of The Star from Sheffield. It reports on the latest fall out amongst local Conservatives over the sacking of their prospective Parliament candidate for Sheffield Hallam, Daniel Gage:

A TOP Sheffield Tory told a parliamentary candidate he had to quit for missing town council meetings – but may have been able to stay on had he “slept with the mayor’s wife” instead.

Alan Ryder, deputy chairman of Sheffield Hallam Conservatives, emailed barman Daniel Gage, aged 24, after he stood down as the party’s candidate against Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg at the general election…

Mr Ryder told Mr Gage: “The fact is that once your council record became public knowledge your position as candidate became untenable.

“I don’t think that you still fully appreciate how serious this was.

“If you had done anything else – such as ’sleeping with the mayor’s wife’ or whatever – then we could have got round it.”

Not a headline I think we can expect to see again any time soon.