A Conservative general election candidate has claimed she “healed” a man of deafness through the power of prayer.

Kirsty Adams, who is the Tory candidate for the marginal constituency of Hove and Portslade, said she laid her hands on the deaf man’s ears and said: “Be healed in Jesus’ name.”

Peter Kyle, who is gay, has represented the constituency in parliament since 2015, and is Labour’s candidate for re-election.

Ms Adams spoke of the miraculous healing at the King’s Arms Church, Bedford, in 2010.

In a voice recording uncovered by the Mirror she claimed to have healed a man of his deafness, claiming that after she removed her hands from his ears he no longer required hearing aids.

Mrs Adams told the Mirror: “Like millions of Christians in the UK, I believe in praying to help people.”

She added: “Millions of Christians around the world pray for people’s health – that’s a good thing isn’t it?

“It’s about tolerance and we are a city of tremendous tolerance.”

The miracle is said to have taken place at the Vitality Show, a spirituality and new age health expo held at Earl’s Court in March 2009.

Ms Adams participated in the “healing centre”, part of the fair where members were encouraged to “give their lives to Jesus.”

In the recording the Conservative candidate can be heard saying: “He had hearing aids in both ears and I just thought that wasn’t right. It just annoyed me.

“So I said: ‘I don’t think that’s quite right, is it? That you should be serving God like this.’

“So I said: ‘Can I pray for you?’ – and his eyes lit up, which is unusual when you offer to pray for someone’s healing. You don’t expect that.”

After she removed her hands, the man could hear without the use of his hearing aids, the parliamentary candidate claims.

“I don’t know if he was more surprised or me.”

Videos on the King’s Arms Church’s website show worshippers claiming to have been healed of ailments ranging from a lost sense of smell, right through to leukaemia, all by the power of prayer.

Ms Adams could be the MP for Hove on June 9 if she defeats the out gay Labour candidate, who is defending a slim majority of just 1,236 votes.

The constituency had been held by the Conservatives prior to 2015.

Warren Morgan, Leader of Brighton and Hove council, told PinkNews: “At a time when our hospital is under special measures and waiting lists times are ever-growing the Tories should be focussing on real solutions for these problems and talking about the crisis in funding and how they can resolve it.”

PinkNews has contacted Kirsty Adams for comment.

It’s not the first surprising story since the snap general election was called for June 8.

The story comes after the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight was forced to step down after telling school student it is “wrong” to be gay.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron also agonised over a question of whether gay sex is a sin, before eventually revealing his view to the BBC, two years after first being asked.