David Cameron is facing calls to sack a Tory candidate who dressed up as the convicted killer Oscar Pistorius – complete with fake blood and full South African athletics kit.

Gregg Peers, who is standing for the Conservatives in a Cumbria County Council by-election two weeks before the general election, posted the fancy dress picture on his Facebook page.

Labour MPs said it was 'stomach churning' to see a prospective Tory councillor making light of a man who gunned down his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day two years ago.

Gregg Peers, who is standing for the Conservatives in a Cumbria County Council by election two weeks before the general election, posted the fancy dress picture on his Facebook page

Mr Peers has previously stood for election in Newcastle and is the agent to the Tory parliamentary candidate for Barrow and Furness Simon Fell.

A Conservative Party spokesman this afternoon attacked Mr Peers' fancy dress choice. He said: 'This is unacceptable and in poor taste. The candidate has apologised and taken the picture down.'

But Labour shadow minister Liz Kendall said the Conservative Party needed to immediately discipline the candidate.

She said: 'Oscar Pistorious is rightly serving time in prison for killing Reeva Steenkamp - it is stomach churning to see a man who wants to hold elected office making a joke out of the death of a woman.

'David Cameron must show he takes violence against women seriously by taking immediate action against his candidate, and the Conservatives must explain why they promoted him to senior positions in their party.'

Oscar Pistorius is facing a fresh murder trial for the killing of his model girlfriend after prosecutors appealed against his manslaughter conviction

Former Olympian sprinter Oscar Pistorius posing with his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2013 just a month before he shot and killed her

Pistorius is facing a fresh murder trial for the killing of his model girlfriend after prosecutors appealed against his manslaughter conviction.

Prosecutors in South Africa want Pistorius convicted of murder for shooting his girlfriend multiple times in a bathroom in his home on Valentine's Day in 2013.

Labour shadow minister Liz Kendal said David Cameron should sack Mr Peers

In December, Judge Thokozile Masipa granted prosecutors permission to take the case to South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal and challenge her own ruling to acquit Pistorius of murder and find him guilty instead of a lesser charge comparable to manslaughter.

Pistorius's lawyers had argued that the judge should not have allowed that appeal.

The Olympian and multiple Paralympic champion is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide, or negligent killing.

The 28-year-old could be eligible for release from the jail in the capital, Pretoria, in August to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.

If prosecutors succeed in their appeal against the culpable homicide conviction in the Supreme Court of Appeal and have it upgraded to murder, Pistorius would face a minimum of 15 years in jail.

Judge Masipa, who presided over Pistorius's seven-month murder trial and the start of the appeal process by prosecutors, made her latest ruling after a short court session in Johannesburg.

Pistorius's trial now looks set to be reviewed by a panel of judges at the Supreme Court of Appeal, which sits in the central city of Bloemfontein.