Twitter claims first election scalp

Labour candidate sacked after four-letter rants

Labour has fired its election candidate for the Scottish seat of Moray, after a collection of his offensive Twitter postings came to light.

Stuart MacLennan used the microblogging site to blast Speaker John Bercow, Tory leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat chief Nick Clegg as a “tit”, a “twat” and a “bastard” respectively.

He had also joked about “slave-grown bananas” and was generally unpleasant about a wide variety of potential constituents, such as the elderly.

On the plus side, he also correctly identified pop duo Jedward as a pair of “odious little shits”.

The tweets were made a year ago when youthful MacLennan was still a student, before his nomination for the Moray seat, Labour said.

The account has been disappeared from Twitter, though some of it is cached here.

“Iain Dale (Tory blogger) reckons the biggest gaffes will likely be made by candidates on Twitter - what are the odds it'll be me?" he also wrote, presciently, according to The Sun.

Labour, which had backed its candidate this morning, has until April 20 to find a replacement.