THE Conservative candidate for next month’s Holgate by-election has been slammed after he attacked Jeremy Corbyn in a foul-mouthed tirade on Twitter.

Joe Pattinson, who hopes to represent the party in the seat made vacant by former Lord Mayor Sonja Crisp, abused the Labour leader on social media in June 2016.

He tweeted: “Corbyn is a sad, little excuse of a (expletive) on British politics at the minute. Horrid little fraud of a man.”

Mr Pattinson has tweeted almost 22,000 times since joining the website in April 2013, and on January 14 he tweeted how the Conservatives were “ready to suspend anyone who’s been abusive online…”

The offensive post was shown to The Press by Holgate resident Robert Dixon, who labelled the tweet “nasty, unprofessional and undignified”.

“I currently live in Holgate and have been investigating the Twitter history of the council by-election candidates before making my decision on who to vote for,” he said.

“As to be expected, there is plenty of criticism of opposition leaders, but I have found what in my opinion is a particularly nasty, unprofessional and undignified tweet from the Conservative candidate Joe Pattinson in which he criticises Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“Regardless of an individual’s political leanings, I do consider this behaviour ‘un-statesmanlike’ and not appropriate for somebody who aspires to represent my ward on the council.”

Mr Pattinson was only revealed as the Tory group’s candidate on Friday last week and has since deleted the tweet.

He said he regrets swearing, but only did so due to the threat of a Government led by Jeremy Corbyn.

He added: “I think and hope we should do better than trolling through people’s social media for their previous comments.

“It is no secret that I’m not a fan of Jeremy Corbyn and so much of what he stands for.

“I deeply regret swearing but anyone’s Twitter, past emails, conversations etc have less than perfect comments, not least when we were threatened with a Corbyn government.”

William Owen, chair of York Labour Party, added: “These sorts of insults on social media seem to be coming from members of the Tory Party more and more these days.

“It has happened in the Labour Party as well of course. But when it does we deal with it by suspending membership and investigating what’s been said. The Tories seem happy with half-hearted, mealy mouthed apologies.”

This is not the first time those associated with the city’s Conservative group have landed themselves in hot water over their comments on social media.

Cllr Chris Steward, a former leader of the council, compared Jeremy Corbyn's popular rallies to the gatherings attended by followers of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

The Rural West York ward councillor used a picture of a Nazi rally to illustrate his point when he tweeted: “You can judge mass attendance at rallies as the proof of a great leader if you want, I will judge their views.”