CONSERVATIVE Party chairman Grant Shapps admitted he did not know the name of the top Tory in a key council election battleground - just a day after mocking Labour leader Ed Miliband for making the same gaffe.

Mr Shapps said he was sure that the leader of Swindon Council was "a great guy" but it was "hard to keep track" of the party's council leaders because there were so many.

His inability to name David Renard was all the more embarrassing after he used his official Twitter account yesterday to join ridicule of Mr Miliband for failing to identify the leader of the Labour group there.

"When in a hole stop digging Ed...worst interview ever," read a message he re-tweeted to 7,000-plus followers after the Labour leader's on-air slip-up during a campaign visit to the Wiltshire town.

Mr Miliband also appeared to be unaware that the local authority was controlled by the Conservatives and not his party - despite it being a target in tomorrow's polls.

But Mr Shapps too was left red-faced when he appeared on LBC radio and was asked if he could name the council leader.

"I knew you were going to ask me that and I still didn't look it up. But he's a great guy," he said.

"We have so many councillors across the country that it's hard to keep track."