Afzal Amin quits as Tory candidate hours after defending plot to win votes by working with the English Defence League

• Tory candidate Afzal Amin accused of planning fake EDL demonstration
• He allegedly promised a salary to the EDL to win him up to 4,000 voters 
• Mr Amin denied the claims and said he had been 'grossly misrepresented'
• He complained he was the victim of a year-long 'sting' operation
• Labour leader Ed Miliband called on David Cameron to sack Amin now 

By Matt Chorley, Political Editor for MailOnline

Published: 03:41 EST, 23 March 2015 | Updated: 12:38 EST, 23 March 2015

Afzal Amin today quit as a Conservative candidate after being accused of plotting to stage and then cancel a march by a far-Right group.

He faced being axed as the candidate in the key marginal seat of Dudley North after being filmed asking the English Defence League to say it was organising an inflammatory march against a local 'mega-mosque'.

Today he appeared to accept that he would be kicked out, but insisted that his bizarre talks with the EDL were part of 'conflict resolution and confidence building measures' to make people feel safer in the town.

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Tory candidate Afzal Amin has vowed to clear his name after he was recorded apparently plotting with a far-Right group to win votes by stirring up religious tensions

Exposed: Afzal Amin makes secret deal with the EDL

Party sources this afternoon said Mr Amin had resigned as candidate 'with immediate effect', a day ahead of the planned disciplinary hearing.

The Conservatives will now move 'swiftly' to appoint a new candidate, who must be in place by the time nominations close on April 9, a source said.

A Conservative spokesman said: 'Afzal Amin is resigning as Conservative candidate for Dudley North with immediate effect.

'Conservative Chairman Grant Shapps has welcomed Mr Amin's decision and thanked him for his work in the past.'

Senior Conservatives had urged Mr Amin to quit but he vowed to fight to clear his name.

Mr Amin was caught on film discussing the idea of an EDL march, which would be announced before he held phoney talks with the group to get it called off.

He would then gain credit for defusing the situation just before the general election. 

In undercover footage obtained by the Mail on Sunday, he offered to 'bring the English Defence League out of the shadows into the mainstream political debate' and claimed that if he was elected to Parliament would act as a 'very strong, unshakeable ally' who would work hard to get the group 'involved in all the institutions of the State'.

This morning he claimed the situation had been misrepresented, telling BBC Rado 4's Today programme: 'What you are describing here is very normal conflict resolution and confidence building measures.

'If people do announce that they are going to do an action and other people disagree with it, then they sit together and they resolve their differences and the action is then stopped.

'This helps the communities feel that 'yes on the other side there's a working partner we can work with', and that's what we were trying to stage manage.' 

Mr Amin was expected before a meeting of the Conservative party's candidates committee tomorrow where he was to defend himself before his fate was decided. But Tory insiders admitted 'it does not look good' for the former Army officer.

His decision to resign suggests he took the decision to jump before he was pushed. 

Tommy Robinson: 'I now fear for my family's safety'

Mr Amin hatched a scheme to persuade the English Defence League (pictured) to announce an inflammatory march against a new £18million 'mega-mosque'

'No, I'm not a Paki, am I?': Amin in answer to spicy food query

Mr Amin was selected two years ago to fight the marginal seat of Dudley North. It is held by Labour's Ian Austin with a majority of only 649. 

Mr Amin today rejected the suggestion he had made a fool of himself, insisting that he stood by his actions.

'I stand by my desire to see peace between our communities. I stand by my desire to see a united Britain where we all live together. The British Muslim community isn't going anywhere. Supporters of EDL aren't going anywhere.

'We all need to share this space, our island. And the more we understand each other, the great that unity can be.'

He claimed that when he first met Mr Robinson 'I didn't realise that this was the start of a year-long sting operation.

'That's really what I have been subject to here.' 

Yesterday defence minister Anna Soubry led calls for Mr Amin to resin, telling the BBC: 'He is at the moment denying this. He has been suspended. What I would say is I would appeal if there is any truth in this – to him – then go now, hold your head up.'

Labour leader Ed Miliband said: 'These are shocking allegations when you have a Conservative candidate saying that he is going to be an 'unshakeable ally' of the English Defence League,' Mr Miliband said.

'There is only one course of action for David Cameron: he should end the dither, end the delay and kick this man out of his party.

'We cannot have these sort of people standing for mainstream parties in British politics.'

This morning Mr Amin denied the claims, and vowed plans to 'make my case' to party officials in a last-ditch attempt to save his political career tomorrow. 

His desire to build community relations led him to hold extraordinary talks with the EDL, the far-Right group blamed for flaming racial tensions with marches in towns and cities across the country.

A month ago, some 600 EDL supporters held a genuine march against about a plan for a £18million mosque in Dudley. There were 30 arrests.

Mr Amin appears to have suggested last week to the EDL's former leader Tommy Robinson and current chairman Steve Eddowes that they announce a 'second march about the mosque'.

At restaurant, he is heard telling them: 'We all play our roles, you say, 'Yeah we're going to do a march...' 

He suggests that after a second meeting is held with him, and police and Muslim leaders, they hold a press conference 'where you say, 'We were going to do a march. The chief [of] police asked Afzal Amin, members of the Muslim community, we've sat together and... we're going to work closely together'.

In the footage, filmed by Mr Robinson and obtained by the Mail on Sunday, he is heard to say: 'This is my fantasy... if I could demonstrate to the people in Dudley that I can be a positive voice for community cohesion, for development, for campaigning against the evils and the terrorism and child grooming and all the rest of it, then that would help me a lot in the election.'

He is said to have spoken to the men again later in the week saying he wanted their activists to canvass for him and offering to pay them 'a small salary' – which would be a breach of election rules.

At one meeting, Mr Amin explained how he wanted Mr Robinson to pay EDL supporters to canvass on his behalf. 'I'll put it to you bluntly. I need two white working class lads to go round those area to say to people, 'You support the Army, if you support the troops then vote for this guy'. That's what I need.'

In a statement on his website, Mr Amin last night insisted the footage had been 'grossly misrepresented and present an inaccurate picture of the reality of what was happening'.

'While the meetings were intended to be private and discreet, I made sure I involved Chief Superintendent Chris Johnson from the start and I made clear, which is evident in the recordings, that I refused to do anything illegal,' he said.

'During a time of heated tensions between various communities in our country, it's vital that we tackle these problems and take difficult, sometimes uncomfortable, steps. The potential for inter communal violence has become a real threat to the destabilisation of our country and we must prevent this at all costs ...

'At the second meeting it was Robinson who proposed the idea of staging a march at our third meeting, this was a surprise to me and after some discussion I saw some merit in the potential to build bridges through negotiation and so I agreed it was worth discussing further.

'I recognised this as an opportunity to promote better community cohesion between various communities, particularly in Dudley because it would lead to face to face discussions between communities and an increase in awareness of the other. It would serve as a confidence building measure.

'Politics requires an amount of bravery and using my experience as a strategist in Afghanistan, negotiating between pro-Taliban militias and the US military, I decided to use the same tactics to improve community relations here in my own country between the EDL and Muslim communities.'

Fall of Princes' Windsor Tutor: Tory candidate posed with PM, Osborne and Welby and claimed he taught Wills and Harry

Proud pose: Amin in ceremonial Army uniform

Afzal Amin was to be the Tories' poster boy at the General Election. 

But his political career is in ruins as he suffers the shame of being suspended from the party over his self-serving plot to win votes by stirring up racial hatred.

It is a spectacular fall from grace for a politician from a humble background who seemed set for high office with the Conservatives but is now a victim of his over-reaching political ambition.

Amin was the first ethnic minority candidate to be chosen for this year's poll, and has been pictured alongside Prime Minister David Cameron, Chancellor George Osborne and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

The 40-year-old has appeared on the BBC's flagship Newsnight programme four times and was praised when he spoke out against the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby by Islamists, insisting that Muslims were an 'integral part' of Britain.

Despite his ambitions, Amin – who is married with two teenage children – has not been afraid to criticise Conservative Party bosses. Last year he admitted that many ethnic minority voters in his target seat of Dudley North, held by a Labour majority of just 649, think that the Tories 'remain a racist party'.

And he told a newspaper that British society and political leaders as well as community leaders must share the blame for the 'jihad generation' that is travelling to Syria to join murderous Islamic State.

His high-profile position with the Conservatives and sought-after views contrast markedly with his humble beginnings. Amin was brought up in the deprived Black Country town of Smethwick, where the Tories had once infamously used openly racist slogans on election leaflets. He left school with practically no qualifications and took a series of menial jobs, including being a waiter, before going to university in London as a mature student.

His fortunes changed in 2001 when he was selected to attend training at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He rose to the rank of captain and saw active service in Iraq and did three tours in Afghanistan.

Afzal Amin: 'I head butted a guy, his face exploded'

High profile: Amin meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury (left) and Chancellor George Osborne during his campaign to be MP for Dudley North

Later moving into an educational role, he says he was a personal tutor to Princes William and Harry, as well as serving as chairman of the Armed Forces Muslim Association.

After leaving the Army he set up a consultancy called The Curzon Education Ltd, which won a £120,000 grant to give lectures to schoolchildren about the role of Commonwealth soldiers in the First World War. It sparked controversy as the grant was given by the Department for Communities, where his 'political acquaintance' Baroness Warsi was a Minister.

Mr Amin worked at the Army's Counterinsurgency And Stabilisation Centre and has given lectures at the UK Defence Academy. He describes himself on Twitter as 'International Conflict and Stabilisation Adviser Government Strategist Fragile States.'

On the photosharing website Flickr he posted a picture of himself meeting Sir Nicholas Soames – Winston Churchill's MP grandson – and wrote: 'In late 2003 I was working on anti-hijacking operations in Southern Basra. We were visited by Sir Nicholas Soames MP whom I briefed about our work tackling gangs with Iraqi police.'

TORY'S ASTONISHING VOTE-FIX TALKS WITH THE ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE

Below are two conversations between Afzal Amin, Conservative candidate for the knife-edge seat of Dudley North, and former leader of far-Right English Defence League Tommy Robinson.

The first, a meeting recorded last Monday, March 16, at Indian restaurant Celebrity in Birmingham, also included EDL chairman Steve Eddowes and several friends of Amin.

The second is a phone conversation between Amin and Robinson last Wednesday, March 18.

Under discussion at both are plans by Amin to choreograph the EDL to announce a demonstration against a mosque in Dudley, only for EDL to then climb down after Amin's apparent personal intervention with the far-Right group, senior police officers and community leaders. Also discussed is how EDL associates will be paid by Amin via Robinson to help convert '3-4,000' voters from traditional EDL grassroots support to win the seat for Amin at the Election.

 

How the bogus demonstration plot is hatched - and payments to EDL supporters are arranged

On camera: Amin at the second meeting at a branch of Pizza Express

The curry house meeting... Afzal Amin to Steve Eddowes: This is my fantasy. My idea is this – I've discussed it with Tommy and lots of other people – if I could demonstrate to the people in Dudley that I can be a positive voice for community cohesion, for campaigning against the evils and the terrorism and the child grooming and all the rest of it, then that would help me a lot in the forthcoming Election.

One way of doing that is, if you were to announce a second march about the mosque, and then we have two meetings with the chief of police, members of the Muslim community, we all play our roles. You say, 'Yeah, we're going to do a march, we're campaigning and so on.'

We have a second meeting where things are a bit calmer. Then at the third one, we have a press conference where you say 'We were going to do a march… the chief police asked Afzal Amin, members of the Muslim community, we've sat together and... we're going to work closely together.'

That will... bring the English Defence League out of the shadows into the mainstream political debate.

…And if I win my election in Parliament, you've got a very strong, unshakeable ally who is going to work hard to get you involved in all the institutions of the State and get you the exposure you need and the people in Parliament need to us... Like I said from the very beginning, 95 per cent of what you want to campaign against, we're with you.

So if we can work together in the next six or seven weeks, there are a couple of people from Dudley, if we give them a small salary, they can work with us.

…If we can work together, get a couple of people from within Dudley who can help us campaign… listen to the media or listen to the ideas that we've got between us, it will help a lot to win that vote over and make us a solid, strong constituency.

Two people to work with us … more or less full time, five or six days a week, whatever they can manage and help us target within certain areas where we know EDL [have support]…

…because I would love to arrive in Parliament and say, I won this seat because [of] you 3,000 white working class English voters that have never voted before.

…if you manage to pull this off and I arrive in Parliament with the 3,000, 4,000 voters, I'd say to David Cameron, I've won this seat because we've reached out with our network to these people and… their views are [that] they don't want to see mega mosques in Dudley.

If you could announce it [the march] for May 2, which is the last Saturday before the Election, maybe they'll get really upset and worked up and then about two weeks before that we do a press conference and we say we're not doing... well, YOU say you're not doing the demonstration. Everyone is very, very happy. EDL have become reasonable… Afzal Amin to deliver the resolution.

The two conversations were between Afzal Amin, Conservative candidate for the knife-edge seat of Dudley North, and former leader of far-Right English Defence League Tommy Robinson (pictured)

Tommy Robinson: I like that.

...You know you said that you can pay two lads on the ground, how much will you pay them?

AA: Yeah, the easiest thing is this, you pay them cash and you… You handle them… What they need to do is come and volunteer on our campaign. We'll look after them… They'll be canvassing and working within the areas where we think that they will… So just work closely with us. Three, four days a week. Come and do a talk a week…

TR: Yeah, yeah. What will I talk about?

AA: Say look, here's the solution for you. In your area, here's the guy. If he gets to Parliament he's going to work with all of us.

TR: Who's going to set up the meeting and where?

AA: We'll do all that.

TR: So that's not going to be booked under the Conservative name then?

AA: We'll see about that. I've have to see the chairman tomorrow and we'll see what we think's the best way of doing that. So even if it's called a community group or whatever. ...We've got a couple of weeks of planning…

SE: So the EDL benefits from this in what way?

AA: You get a strong, unshakeable ally, who will ring you and people you want to – whose voices you want to see heard into the mainstream...

You will have meetings with other MPs, with Ministers, all sorts of other people involved in the Parliamentary system. Because obviously there's journalists, there's think-tanks, there's all sorts of things. The issues that we will share amongst ourselves [we will promote]. But my ambition goes well beyond being an MP.

TR: Where do you think you can get?

AA: I think I can get to the top.

SE: So you're aiming for Cameron's seat then?

AA: To go from Smethwick to Sandhurst is a massive jump. As far as I know I'm more or less the only person that managed it.

Meeting spot: The Celebrity curry house in Birmingham where the plot to announce a phantom march was first discussed

The telephone conversation two days later... 

TR: How did you think it went? [the restaurant meeting]

AA: Yeah we're very happy to proceed. What did Eddowes say?

TR: Eddowes will do it.

AA: Great.

TR: It's just when and how.

AA: If he announces in the couple of days that May 2 the EDL are going to… [he refers to a Britain First march arranged for May 9]

TR: …So when do you want Eddowes to announce his for?

AA: 2nd of May.

TR: Do you know what he should be saying, because you know you said you need two people on the ground and you met Andy [EDL's head of security], didn't you?

AA: Of course, yeah.

TR: Andy knows everyone in all those areas. It's just Eddowes doesn't know what he's offering and what he's actually putting to them, how many days… he's not aware of what he can say to them, who's paying them.

AA: We can't pay them.

TR: He can't pay them. OK.

AA: That will be illegal. What we propose to you is that you hire them.

TR: OK.

AA: And we'll work out what contribution if any they can make directly to our campaign and what they can do directly for you, but let's talk about that face to face.

TR: OK.

AA: We obviously can't hire people in that because it would be against election rules, and we don't want to break any rules.

TR: That's OK. So I'll pay them and we'll sort something out between me and you.

AA: Yeah, of course, of course.

TR: No problem.

AA: …The EDL, we are going to march again on the 2nd of May, and then... once that's announced in about two days' time, we'll arrange the first meeting between the chief of police, Eddowes, Andy, a couple of local Muslim lads that you've already met as well. We'll have that meeting. We'll have a second meeting and the third one will be a press conference, and we'll announce that we're not going to have it because it will be too destructive, too expensive etc.

TR: OK, cool.

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