The Liberal Democrats have suspended a local party branch in a key election battleground – just weeks before the General Election.

The party's London headquarters stepped in and shut down the North West Leicestershire branch – which has 60 members – after allegations of in-fighting and rule-breaking.

It followed a bid to revoke the membership of county and district councillor Michael Wyatt.

The move by Lib Dem HQ comes ahead of a high-profile General Election battle in the constituency, which sees Labour's hold on the seat under threat.

In 2005, Labour held the seat with a 4,477 majority over the Conservatives. The Liberal Democrats polled 5,682 votes.

The group, which has two other district councillors, has been suspended rather than individuals.

It means all of the group's affairs are now handled by the East Midlands regional party until further notice.

Effectively, local party members cannot run the election campaign for prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) Professor Paul Reynolds while suspended.

No formal meetings can be held by the local party to decide which grassroots issues to concentrate on in the election campaign, or their councillors' policy ahead of meetings.

Prof Reynolds confirmed there was an issue over whether Coun Wyatt was voting in line with group policy on Leicestershire County Council.

He added: "He's also been a bit uppity over my role as PPC. I think he wants to be PPC and didn't get it. There are a lot of very trivial issues."

It is understood that on January 23 the group's executive committee, headed up by chairman Susan Morrell, unanimously passed a resolution to suspend Coun Wyatt's membership of the Liberal Democrats.

An e-mail sent by Ms Morrell the same day said: "The criteria for revocation of Mr Wyatt's membership of the Liberal Democrat Party were set out in the resolution today. They include bringing the party into disrepute and other issues."

The Liberal Democrats' national office said party rules may have been breached and moved in to suspend the local branch.

A spokesperson for the party today confirmed that an probe was under way into whether party rules were breached.

He said: "Councillor Michael Wyatt remains a member of the Liberal Democrats as a serving councillor.

"I can confirm the North West Leicestershire local party has been suspended until an investigation can take place.

"The Liberal Democrats' regional party for the East Midlands will assume the management role for the local party until further notice."

Ms Morrell was elected as constituency party chairman two months ago when Ashby town councillor David Price stepped down after three years in the role.

Mr Price said at the time: "I am convinced Sue is the right person to take the party to even further success."

Coun Wyatt and Ms Morrell said they could not comment while investigations continued.

Labour PPC Ross Willmott said: "In my experience, a party won't get suspended unless something very serious is wrong. It's usually more than just a clash of personalities."