THE campaign to turn Swansea blue for the first time in decades has kicked off with a candidate comparing Britain to Zimbabwe.

Swansea West Conservative candidate Rene Kinzett courted controversy last year over comments he made about fellow councillors.

"Most of the people on the council are in their 60s and, quite frankly, past it," he said.

Councillor Kinzett made the comment following criticism from councillors, after he had claimed that most of them knew "less than his cat".

Councillors Mary Jones and Wendy Fitzgerald reported him to the Local Government Ombudsman for breaching the council's code of conduct.

Now the Ombudsman has decided Councillor Kinzett's punishment should be decided by the council's standards committee.

However, he said: "I am standing by my view that Swansea Council is unrepresentative."

He added: "I think the most interesting thing is I can't say that a councillor is useless. Democracy has been dealt a blow by the Ombudsman.

"If I think Gordon Brown is useless, am I going to be arrested? Is this Britain or Zimbabwe?

"By any yardstick the people who run Swansea Council are useless. They have cut school budgets, a school has gone into special measures and social services is under virtual control by the Assembly.

Councillor Kinzett joined his fellow Tory candidates as they met commuters at Swansea railway station.

Byron Davies is standing in the Conservative target seat of Gower.

Christian Holliday is hoping to take Swansea East from Labour's Sian James and Councillor Kinzett is battling to win the Swansea West seat following Labour MP Alan Williams's decision to step down.

Councillor Kinzett, leader of the council's Tory group, said: "People want change in this country.

"There are record levels of debt and we have to get the deficit down.

"Locally we have got issues with the Lib Dem council sacking 100 teachers and we have a school which has been taken into special measures."

alex.brown@swwmedia.co.uk