A COUNCILLOR could face further punishment over the “hired killers” tweet which saw him thrown out of his own party.

Brighton and Hove councillor Ben Duncan will appear before the authority’s standards committee next Monday with councillors advised to rule that his behaviour fell below that expected of a councillor in failing to treat people with respect.

The charges brought against the now independent councillor relate to one tweet in June in which he described soldiers marching through Brighton on Armed Forces Day as “hired killers”.

A second tweet he wrote in June which read: “Blasphemous 7yo wants ‘Islam book’ to press flowers in (it’s big and heavy). Should I stone her to death when I get home from work?” This provoked a complaint from Sunny Choudhury, president of the Brighton District Bangladeshi Shomity.

Choudhury described the tweets as “deeply distasteful” and “hurtful to himself and other Muslims” which were not “befitting” of a city councillor and did “more to divide our community than bring people together”.

Coun Duncan said he did not believe that Islam was “a violent religion” and that his tweet was “aimed at a small minority of extreme adherents of Islam who practise violence in the name of their religious beliefs”.

A cross-party panel of councillors - Leo Littman, Ann Norman, and Jeane Lepper, along with Dr David Horne as chairman and independent person, will make a decision at the standards hearing next Monday at 10am in Hove Town Hall.