A TORY council candidate was left red faced after asking 24-year-old homeowner if his parents were in.

Pitsea North-West candidate Sam Gascoyne has gone viral, with more than 1 million people watching the moment he mistook Steven Wood for a child while out on the campaign trail.

Footage of the moment shows Mr Wood open his front door to the politician, who asks him: “Mum and dad in?”.

The five-foot three assembly operator responds “I live here” to which a surprised Mr Gascoyne asks: “Your house?”.

The video, only four-seconds long, captures the painstaking blunder and has been liked more than 50,000 times on Twitter after being gleefully shared by Mr Wood’s brother who exclaimed it had “made my week”.

Mr Gascyone says he has learnt his lesson and will no longer be opening by asking for people’s parents while door knocking in the lead up to the local elections in May.

Echo:

Apologetic - Mr Gascoyne

He said: “Well my wife and kids have been laughing at me pretty much the whole time since they saw the video, and most of my wider family and friends too.

“My campaigning in Pitsea was going well up until that point when I got that embarrassingly wrong. It was a split second judgement call that turned out to be a massive gaff.

“I've spoken to members in the association - once they stopped laughing at me - they advised maybe I shouldn't open with "are your mum and dad home?" I doubt I'll make that mistake again.”

He added: “I'm relieved to hear that the resident saw the funny side, as did his family. Nonetheless, as a politician I feel obliged to apologise and hope no offence was caused. I really hope he hasn't been put off voting for me.”

The Conservative candidate is running for the seat currently held by Labour leader councillor Jack Ferguson.

Mr Ferguson was first elected in 2018, securing 47.2 per cent of the vote and finishing 300 votes ahead of the second place Conservative Yetunde Adeshile.

Liberal Democrat Martin Howard will be contesting the pair.

In 2021 he secured 4.1 per cent of the vote running for the same ward after former Labour council leader Gavin Callaghan retired from the council.