Conservative candidate resigns in EDL row

Mr Amin was suspended but said he would fight allegations that he discussed using the EDL to canvass on his behalf and stage a fake protest to increase his chances in the general election.

But Conservative sources said today that he had resigned as candidate before a disciplinary hearing planned for tomorrow.

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.”

Mr Amin was accused of plotting with ex-EDL leader Tommy Robinson to announce a protest against a new “mega-mosque” in Dudley – and then take the credit for defusing community tensions.

Mr Robinson secretly filmed their conversation then released it to the Mail on Sunday.

Mr Amin, a former Army education officer who reportedly worked with the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, was filmed talking to Mr Robinson and current EDL chairman Steve Eddowes at an Indian restaurant in Birmingham.

Phoney protest

The 40-year-old is said to have suggested that EDL members could be paid to canvass for him, and came up with the idea of a phoney EDL protest – weeks after a real demonstration in Dudley by 600 of the far-right group’s supporters led to 30 arrests.

Speaking before his resignation, Mr Amin told the BBC that he had merely discussed “very normal conflict resolution, confidence-building measures”.

He added: “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; then this helps the communities feel that ‘Yes, on the other side there is a working partner we can work with’.”That’s what we were trying to stage-manage.”

He insisted that the second march was proposed by Mr Robinson, saying: “There is no way that I would have the confidence to propose such a manoeuvre to the EDL leadership.

“He is the one that proposed, absolutely, that we would do this march and then we would negotiate a way out of it.

“When he first came to me he presented himself in tears, saying that he wanted to see an improved Britain.

“I didn’t realise this was the start of a year-long sting operation. That’s really what I’ve been subject to here.”

Labour shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Ashworth said: “It’s right that Afzal Amin has gone but what on earth took so long? Given the serious allegations involved it was obvious that David Cameron should have expelled him immediately.

“Instead he dithered until the candidate himself jumped before he was pushed.

“This deeply damaging episode has exposed a Conservative campaign in chaos and a prime minister paralysed by indecision.”