Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) speaks on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.

A Republican US Senator has dismissed an intern – after he referred to party leader Paul Ryan as a “cuck” and used a series of homophobic slurs.

The controversy emerged when political website Mediaite published a recording of an intern employed by GOP Senator Tom Cotton speaking to a reporter.

Nate Washington was recorded referring to House Speaker Paul Ryan as a “cuck” and calling British people “faggots”.

The intern has worked in the senator’s office since January, and previously worked for the Republican Party of Kentucky.

Mediaite adds that the intern “made a name for himself for his controversial and homophobic rhetoric in the halls of Congress”, according to multiple sources.

The site added that Washington “has quite a history of controversial social media posts, as he repeatedly said ‘fag’ and ‘faggot’ and used ‘gay’ as a derogatory term on his public Twitter page before being hired. These Twitter rants also include the use of the slur ‘tranny’.”

He was employed at the Senator’s office for several months despite his clear record of homophobia.

Following the reports, Senator Cotton’s office confirmed that Washington was no longer an intern there, suggesting he has been dismissed.

The Senator did not issue an apology or a comment to disavow the homophobic remarks.

In an interview with anti-LGBT website Daily Caller, Washington appeared unrepentant.

He too declined to apology, saying: “The recordings were all recorded without my or either of my roommates’ consent. I’m not going to speak on anything that was said during that recording.

“I was certainly intoxicated at the time and so was everyone else.”

The reporter behind the piece, however, insists that Washington approached him directly at the party and began making the controversial comments.

Senator Tom Cotton has previously claimed that LGBT people can’t complain about discrimination because they’d be killed in Iran.

Confronted over state-level anti-LGBT laws in the US, Cotton insisted: “I think it’s important that we have a sense of perspective about our priorities.

“In Iran they hang you for the crime of being gay. They’re currently imprisoning an American preacher for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in Iran.

“We should focus on the most important priorities that our country faces right now.”