Lee Jasper quits over flirty emails

Lee Jasper, the Mayor of London's beleaguered race relations adviser, finally resigned on Tuesday after months of allegations of impropriety and cronyism. The last straw for Ken Livingstone’s closest aide - suspended from his £120,000-a-year post by the mayor last month - came after a string of saucy and badly spelled emails were published in London's Evening Standard.

The newspaper alleged that the married 49-year-old had sent a series of explicit messages to a woman linked to two organisations that received £100,000 in grants from City Hall. Mayoral staff are required to disclose any "close personal" relationships with groups that receive funding.

The father-of-nine apparently bombarded Karen Chouhan, the company secretary of the 1990 Trust and director of the Black Londoners' Forum, with a string of flirtatious emails. In one message, Jasper wrote: "I want to wisk [sic] you away to a deserted island beach, honey glase [sic] you, let you cook before a torrid and passionate embrace." Another praised her "feet, ankles, legs, thighs, bum and belly, arms, head and brain".

Chouhan, who described herself as a "a happily married woman" said she had never had a sexual relationship with Jasper, whom she has known for 22 years. The emails were examples of the senior aide getting carried away, she added. "Lee's mistake is to put stuff down... He writes too much banter and a lot of rubbish, and that's his mistake."

Jasper's exit will be seen as a blow for the mayor - and could do serious damage to his chances of re-election in May. But in his resignation letter, Jasper said he was quitting to prevent the issues surrounding his position overshadowing the Labour mayor's re-election bid against his Conservative challenger Boris Johnson. He blamed the "racist nature of a relentless media campaign" for his decision.