Bungling Conservative election officials have been left red-faced after printing a campaign leaflet advertising an anti-Tory website.

Election pamphlets sent out in Worthing direct voters to an internet site owned by the opposition Liberal Democrat group on the local authority.

Anyone who visits the site expecting to find pro-Conservative information is instead shown the Lib Dems' top reasons not to vote Tory.

The bizarre situation arose after a nonexistent website address was left on the leaflets being delivered for Worthing councillor Paul High.

He is a candidate to become the West Sussex county councillor for the Tarring area of Worthing in the elections on June 4.

The leaflet had already been delivered to hundreds of homes before the Tories realised the mistake.

The website address should have been www.westsussexconservatives.info, but instead reads www.websitenameconservatives.info.

The error was also spotted by a sharp-eyed Liberal Democrat supporter and the party pounced on the opportunity to boost their own campaign.

It bought the website address and posted its own campaign information on it.

Coun High criticised the move, suggesting it was a dirty tricks campaign.

He said: "I always fight a clean campaign. Even if I know anything about another candidate I would never try and rubbish them.

"This is underhand dealing and I m not happy with it."

James Doyle, leader of the Lib Dem opposition on Worthing Borough Council, was first shown the leaflet by a neighbour.

He said: "It's one of those things that happens to all political parties when people don't proofread properly.

"It's up to the Conservative party to get their leaflets right.

"All we have done is purchase a website name that was free and available.

"I think it should be treated as a bit of light humour. We are simply trying to get our message across."

Worthing councillor Tom Wye, the Tories election agent for the area, said: "It was an error on the literature and the Lib Dems are playing games.

"The web address on the inside is correct and should have been put on the back. If that's the best they can do then they are welcome to it.

"It's not as bad as when they put the wrong election date on their leaflet in a previous year. Politics at the moment is all a bit too serious to get bogged down in this."

But Morwen Millson, leader of West Sussex County Council's Lib Dems, could see the funny side.

She said: "I would like to congratulate Worthing Liberal Democrats on spotting the error and reacting in an imaginative and amusing way to draw attention to the differences between us and the Conservatives."

The error was spotted by Worthing resident Dan Thompson, who spread the word on Twitter, where he is known as artistsmakers.

He tweeted: "Worthing's Conservative mistake is brilliant - how can a party that nationally is getting good accept such incompetence at a local level?"

Adding later: "It is quite a monumentally stupid mistake; shows that local Conservatives aren't exactly web-savvy!"

As far as the Tories know, Coun High's leaflet is the only one affected.