An official complaint has been lodged against the former Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall, after she shared on social media an AI-generated image of Sir Sadiq Khan drowning.
Ms Hall, who continues to sit as a London Assembly member after failing to unseat the Labour mayor in last year’s City Hall election, said her post on X was “meant as a lighthearted joke”.
But allies of the mayor have branded the post “disgusting” and have demanded she “reflect and apologise”.
The image on X, initially posted by a separate account, depicts the mayor struggling to stay afloat in a large body of water with the caption “What would you throw to save Khan?”
Ms Hall shared the post with the words: “A ULEZ camera……”
After another user responded “send two!”, Ms Hall - who Sir Sadiq claimed last year was “unfit to be mayor” - replied with a laughing emoji.
In a formal complaint to City Hall’s monitoring officer, Labour assembly member Leonie Cooper pointed out that Ms Hall had pinned the post to the top of her X account for a period of time, in an apparent effort to maximise its visibility.
Sir Sadiq has faced repeated threats to his life throughout his mayoralty and requires constant police protection as a result.
In her complaint, Ms Cooper drew attention to the fact that the Greater London Authority (GLA) code of conduct states that elected members must “treat others with respect”.
It further states that members “must not conduct yourself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing your office or authority into disrepute.”
Ms Cooper told the monitoring officer: “Reposting, sharing and making jokes about AI generated imagery which depicts violence against politicians is unacceptable.
“Political disagreements are vital to the democratic process and it is right that we can take different views and can debate robustly against those with whom we disagree. However, posts such as the above dehumanise political opponents and encourage political violence.”
Neil Coyle, the Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, has meanwhile urged the Conservative Party to separately investigate the matter.
“These comments from Susan Hall are a disgrace,” he said. “Joking about someone drowning should be below any decent politician, from any party.
“I hope the chair of the Conservative Party will investigate these disgusting remarks and take appropriate action.”
Ms Hall told BBC London on Wednesday: “I was responding to a joke on X - which is something I often do - clearly it bore no relation to any other news story.
“It was meant as a lighthearted joke, as many of my tweets are, and certainly not intended to be taken seriously.”
The Conservative Party did not respond when asked if it had any comment.
