Independent candidate Tony Windsor says he is seeking legal advice over a front-page newspaper story that alleged he was a schoolyard bully, as the hard-fought campaign for New England gets increasingly personal.

The Australian reported on Tuesday that Mr Windsor, the local MP until retiring at the 2013 election, had physically mistreated other students at Tamworth's Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School in the 1960s, according to some former classmates.

Mr Windsor, who has had a hostile relationship with News Corp since his support for the Gillard minority government, said he would not be responding to the "gutter journalism".