Shueb Salar, assistant to Labour’s London mayor candidate, apparently joked about being a hitman and sent misogynist tweets

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

An aide to Labour’s candidate for London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has resigned after he apparently posted offensive comments on social media and posed with a gun while joking about being a hitman.

Shueb Salar, a parliamentary assistant to the former minister, was pictured with a gun. A message apparently posted by him bragged about spending a weekend “shooting stuff with real guns, knives, crossbows and bow and arrows”, according to the Evening Standard.

The posts included joke comments “I’mASecretHitman”, “ShoutMeIfYouWantMeToTakeCareOfSomeone” and “I’llMakeItLookLikeAnAccident”.

Shueb Salar. Photograph: LinkedIn

A video clip shows him taking aim at a target in a firing range. A spokesman for Khan said the firing range formed part of a shooting weekend which was innocently bought by Salar and a group of friends from a discount offers website.

It emerged at the weekend that Salar had sent a series of offensive tweets. In one message, posted in May 2012, Salar said “currently hating on all you faggots who have finished uni”, adding “lucky cunts”.

A post from June 2012 read “fuck all you hoes”, while a message from April 2012 suggested that the way to “treat a lady” was to “buy her a nice iron and extend the kitchen for her”.

A spokesman for Khan said: “Sadiq acted immediately to suspend Shueb Salar as soon as he was made aware of these serious issues over the weekend. Shueb Salar has now resigned from his role as a junior member of Sadiq’s parliamentary staff.”

Salar started working for Khan in his Westminster office in November 2014, after the offensive messages had been put on social media.

The cabinet minister, Chris Grayling, questioned Khan’s judgment in employing someone who had made such posts. The Commons leader said: “The real issue here is about Sadiq Khan’s lack of judgment. If he really is surrounding himself with someone so unfit to be playing a role in public life then you have to ask whether he himself is fit to be mayor of London.

“Trivialising violence can never be justified.”