Suspended Tory MP Afzal Amin wanted to “prevent further tensions” with fake EDL protest
Afzal Amin, the Conservative MP suspended for allegedly colluding with the EDL to win votes, has said he was aiming to “prevent further inter-communal tensions and violence”.
The Tory election candidate for Dudley North is alleged by the Mail on Sunday to have plotted with current EDL leader Steve Eddowes and former leader Tommy Robinson to stage a fake protest against the building of a “mega-mosque”.
According to the paper, Amin then hoped to win over voters by publicly stopping the protest and diffusing the situation.
Amin was suspended with “immediate effect” by the Conservative Party following an emergency meeting last night.
The former Army captain who served in Afghanistan is reported to have said in footage secretly filmed by Robinson: “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 the child grooming and all the rest of it, then that would help me a lot in the forthcoming election.”
However, Amin has since attempted to explain the meetings by arguing the transcripts published by the Mail do not demonstrate the full extent of his meetings.
He told the Independent on Sunday:
For the past year, I have been undertaking discussions with Tommy Robinson and more recently with the leadership of the EDL to prevent further inter-communal tensions and violence….…There was an opportunity for me to use my experience as a strategist in Kandahar by getting people to talk face to face and then recount to their communities what was discussed and that a settlement was agreed.