AN election candidate at the centre of a bitter personal battle has been ousted.
Sue Catling, prospective Tory candidate for the Calder Valley, has been deselected after being voted out at a Conservative Association meeting.
The decision to axe would-be candidate Mrs Catling was made at a two-and-a-half-hour meeting in Lightcliffe last night where about 90 members turned out to hear the businesswoman's fate.
Today Mrs Catling, who had been working towards the candidacy for five years, expressed her disappointment at the decision.
She said: "I was accused of everything except murder and paedophilia.
"I have been the victim of the most vicious and sustained witch hunt.
"At last night's meeting there were a lot of very bruising, cruel and unpleasant things said.
"But if you throw enough mud at someone long enough eventually some of it sticks.
"I feel as though I have been swimming in a stinking sewer for a long time.
"The good thing is I am now out of it and can breathe clean air away from those people."
The 43-year-old Brighouse mother of two admitted she had no plans to challenge the decision.
She said: "I am very disappointed and am taking stock of what to do next."
But she believed Conservative support locally, in the run-up to the general election, would be damaged by the decision.
She said: "I think there will be many people not renewing memberships or resigning."
Her deselection comes after sexual allegations were made in 2003 linking her with former Calder Valley Conservative Association chairman Barrie Henderson.
Both denied the claims but Ms Catling has since failed to shake off the controversy.
She managed to survive two previous deselection attempts.
Former Calderdale councillor Craig Whittaker is now being tipped as the most likely candidate to succeed her.
