An aide to Labour’s London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan has been suspended after writing dozens of offensive messages on Twitter. Shueb Salar, the MP’s parliamentary assistant, allegedly posted sexist and homophobic tweets in the years before he was hired in November 2014.
In April 2012, he responded to the hashtag #HowToTreatALady with: Buy her a nice iron and extend the kitchen for her.
Mr Salah had also tweeted about the “funniest tube journey ever” – when rowdy chavs were cussing these 2 gay guys for kissing. He added: Maybe they deserved it.
A spokeswoman for Mr Khan, who is the bookies’ favourite to win the mayoralty and succeed Boris Johnson, said “clearly (these tweets) are serious issues” – and confirmed Mr Salar had been suspended pending an investigation. Despite the suspension, the leader of the Commons, Chris Grayling, has claimed the incident reflects badly on Mr Khan.
The cabinet minister said: “These comments have absolutely no place in modern society. They raise serious questions about the judgement of Sadiq Khan who chose to employ this man despite his views being public, on a Twitter account followed by Khan himself.