THE TORIES’ Welsh election campaign has been dealt a humiliating setback after the party polled just seven votes in council election.

Tory candidate Nigel Godfrey polled just 0.8 per cent of the 833 votes cast at the by-election in Caerphilly’s Moriah ward on Thursday.

The total is three fewer than the number of eligible voters Mr Godfrey required to nominate him to stand in the election.

And it is thought to be the lowest recorded by a council candidate since a Trade Union and Socialist Coalition candidate failed to secure a single vote in a Medway Council election last May.

David Harse convincingly held the seat for Labour with 464 votes — a 8.6 per cent swing to the party and more than 250 votes clear of the second-placed candidate.

A Conservative spokesman claimed that the party had “established an important bridgehead” by standing in a ward it has previously not contested.

But the Tories’ pitiful performance made them a laughing stock on social media and does not bode well for the party ahead of the Welsh Assembly elections on May 5.

It will also have caused embarrassment for Business Secretary Sajid Javid as he made a belated visit to Port Talbot steelworks yesterday.

A local Labour source told the Star: “This embarrassing showing from the Tories proves just how out of touch they are with working-class communities across Wales.

“While the Tories continue to seek to do Wales down, whether with outrageous rhetoric on health from the Prime Minister or their lacklustre approach to the steel crisis, they’ll never speak for working people in valleys communities like Moriah.”