EDL would then have called the rally off and Amin would have taken credit

A key Tory Election candidate was suspended last night after plotting with far-Right extremists to stir up racial hatred in a cynical bid to win votes.

Afzal Amin hatched a scheme to persuade the English Defence League to announce an inflammatory march against a new £18million ‘mega-mosque’. But – as he revealed in secretly filmed footage obtained by The Mail on Sunday – the plan was that the demonstration would never actually go ahead.

And when the phoney rally was called off, the fiercely ambitious Amin, a Muslim, intended to take credit for defusing the situation – winning over voters, and police, in the marginal seat of Dudley North.

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Tory Election candidate Afzal Amin (pictured) was suspended after plotting with far-Right extremists to stir up racial hatred in a cynical bid to win votes

In return for going along with the scheme, the former Army captain promised the EDL members he would be their ‘unshakeable ally’ who would help bring their extreme views into the mainstream if he was elected to Parliament.

Amin also wanted EDL members to be paid to canvass on his behalf in Dudley – against election law.

But his devious plot was secretly filmed by former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, who blew the whistle on Amin’s scheme because he objected to being used as a pawn in his bizarre power game.

Amin, who has been described on his Tory Party website as a former Army education officer to Princes William and Harry, outlined his plan at an Indian restaurant in Birmingham on Monday.

There he made an apparent offer to Robinson and current EDL chairman Steve Eddowes to covertly pay EDL members to canvass on his behalf. But they were even more shocked by 40-year-old Amin proposing a phantom protest only weeks after a real demonstration in Dudley by 600 EDL supporters led to ugly flashpoints and 30 arrests.

In The Mail on Sunday’s sensational tapes Amin – who openly covets the Prime Minister’s job:

Promises the plot will bring ‘EDL out of the shadows and into the mainstream political debate’.

Claims that while serving as Harry and William’s education officer he headbutted a man in a hoodie whose ‘face exploded’.

Replies to a question about whether he likes spicy food by saying: ‘No, I’m not a Paki, am I?’

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

At 6pm on Saturday, after Prime Minister David Cameron promised ‘swift, decisive action’ on the allegation, Tory Party chairman Grant Shapps suspended Amin from the party, pending an investigation.

A Tory spokesman said: ‘Following an emergency meeting, it has been decided unanimously to suspend him as a candidate with immediate effect. The Conservative Party views this as a matter of extremely serious concern.’

The ‘Currygate’ plot began in January with Amin’s first meeting with Eddowes and Robinson, who, despite leaving the EDL because of concerns about its violent reputation, remains close to many senior figures. At that meeting in a Toby Carvery, Amin genuinely tried to persuade the EDL leaders to call off their February protest, but in vain.

Eddowes, 48, recalled: ‘He had wanted us to cancel our protest against the super-mosque in Dudley that we had planned for February 7.

Fiercely ambitious: Tory Afzal Amin wanted a phantom EDL demo to boost his Election chances

‘That wasn’t going to happen so he just talked about himself a lot and how he knew Churchill’s grandson Nicholas Soames and had met David Cameron.’

The EDL men admitted they were impressed by the Tory hopeful.

But at last Monday’s meeting, Eddowes said he was incredulous.

He said: ‘Tommy had told me that Afzal wanted to meet again and Tommy thought there was something underhand going on. He didn’t go into details.

‘At that meeting, I just listened with bemusement. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. What he was suggesting was to set up a demo and then cancel it after the idea had made the news.’

When Robinson says of Eddowes: ‘But you know if he’s going to put out a demo, you have to put out a demo soon really,’ Amin explains: ‘You’ve only got to announce it, you don’t have to do it.’

Amin added: ‘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 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 we 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”.’

Amin elaborated on his plot in a phone call on Wednesday and in a second meeting at a branch of Pizza Express in London on Thursday.

At that meeting, Amin explained how he wanted 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.’

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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When Robinson suggested that would cost £500 a week, Amin replied: ‘What’s that, £250 each a week? I they do April 4 to the first week of May, that’ll be loads… from our perspective, they’re volunteers.’

It is illegal to pay people to canvass in an Election under the Representation of the People Act 1983.

Eddowes said: ‘This was the same guy who had told us he wanted to be Prime Minister. It seemed entirely dishonest to me. The fake demonstration was fraudulently wasting the time of the authorities. Then he said he would pay our members to canvass for him at the Election. I don’t know if that’s legal but it didn’t seem right to me. It felt like he was trying to buy us off.

‘I was really disappointed in the man. I’d met him earlier this year and was really impressed. To me he ticked every box with his British Army background and seemed like a man of real integrity but when I left that meeting on Monday I felt like I wanted nothing more to do with him.’

Spokesman: Amin was interviewed on BBC News about the murder of Lee Rigby and the effect on the Muslim community

Robinson echoed that opinion, saying: ‘I was stunned that this respectable man was talking about bribing members of the EDL and organising fake marches. I was equally alarmed when he said he had violently attacked someone. I haven’t been an angel, but this man could win his Election and I felt I had to do something.’

When The MoS confronted Amin in Dudley yesterday, he described the allegations as ‘completely untrue’, adding that a second march ‘was suggested and we rejected it, and we even informed the police about it.’ Asked whether he had met Robinson and Eddowes at the Birmingham restaurant, he replied: ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.

‘The very best way to do deal with this is with the police because they are very serious allegations.’

'I WAS WITH THE ROYALS. I HEADBUTTED A GUY. HIS FACE EXPLODED' Harry, Wills... and a vicious assault AA: Yeah he [a reference to a man involved in the 2011 riots] punched a guy in the face. Who hasn’t done that? The difference between you and me is one thing: I haven’t been caught. LAUGHS …Even in Windsor, I was Education Officer for Prince Harry and Prince William, I headbutted a guy, his face exploded. But when the police turned up they see me in a suit – cashmere suit with a briefcase and they see this guy hoodie up, cap on. Male [a friend of Amin]: What was he doing? AA: Wheeling all over the place... They can’t work out why would the guy in the suit crack that guy? Amin, pictured, left, in Basra with fellow officers and MP Sir Nicholas Soames, boasted of being the Princes' Education Officer ‘I’m not a Paki, am I?’ AA: I’ll have tandoori prawn for the main. Can you make it as mild as possible? Waiter: It’s marinated in the spice already. AA: Yeah can you rinse it off? TR: You don’t like spicy food? AA: No, I’m not a Paki am I? Newsnight boasts Naim Akhtar [AA’s friend, talking about a Conservative gathering of ‘your white, working class people.’]: Out of all the people that were there Afzal says to me, ‘Let’s wait here, he’ll come to us.’ David Cameron walked up to us and said, ‘Afzal, how are you? How is your campaign?’ We had a good five or 10-minute chat, the way we’re chatting now. Out of all the people in the room... AA: They know who I am. Naim: They know him. The only candidate in the whole of the UK who’s been on Newsnight four times. AA: They’ve already asked me what sort of committees do you want to serve on, they’re that sure I’m going to win. Advertisement

When it was put to Amin that he was trying to stir up racial hatred to win a seat, he replied: ‘That’s absolutely untrue, that’s utter rubbish.’

Yesterday, after The Mail on Sunday approached Amin, he said in an angry phone call to Robinson: ‘We’re trying to prevent racial discord.’

Robinson replied: ‘By setting up a fake demonstration? Not just that, Afzal, even the fact you wanted to pay EDL supporters to help your campaign to get you in as a Conservative it’s all dishonesty.’

Amin: ‘Who suggested paying anybody? It’s complete rubbish.’

Robinson: ‘There’s a recording.’

Amin: ‘I know exactly what I said and at no point did I say anything about that.’

The meeting between Amin and Tommy Robinson was born out of the two men’s shared opposition to Muslim extremism.

Ex-teacher Amin was brought up in the Black Country, joined the Army after 9/11 and trained at Sandhurst. He served three tours in Afghanistan and became captain in the Army’s education service, where he is said to have taught Princes Harry and William at Windsor.

Amin was the first ethnic minority candidate to be chosen to fight May’s election for the Tories, in the key battleground of Dudley North, which has a Labour majority of 649.

West Midlands Police said last night they had not been made aware of any future proposed demonstrations in Dudley by the EDL.

FOOTBALL HOOLIGAN RACE HATE MOB BEHIND TORCHING OF MOSQUE The English Defence League recruited thousands of football hooligans to take to the streets in protest at the rise of radical Islam – with violent and bloody results. The group emerged in 2009 to fight back against Muslim extremists who had disrupted a parade for soldiers returning from Afghanistan, and immediately attracted controversy. Riot squads were brought in to quell fighting at an EDL event in Leicester in 2010. A year later EDL activist Simon Beech was jailed for setting fire to a mosque in Stoke. Behind the shadowy movement was Stephen Lennon, from Luton. He later adopted the name Tommy Robinson. The English Defence League recruited thousands of football hooligans to take to the streets in protest at the rise of radical Islam – with violent and bloody results (former leader Tommy Robinson, left) He already had a conviction for attacking an off-duty policeman and was later found guilty of threatening behaviour during a battle between rival football thugs. Since jailed for passport and mortgage fraud, Robinson, 32, eventually decided the EDL had become too extreme and left the group. Its current chairman is Steve Eddowes. But by the time Robinson quit in 2013, branches of the organisation had sprung up around the country, often linked to hooligan ‘firms’. They stirred up anger by holding raucous marches through city centres on Saturday afternoons. The EDL insisted its targets were Islamism and Sharia law, but several activists had been in the racist British National Party and some were seen making Nazi salutes on marches. Its demonstrations invariably led to clashes with counter-protests by Left-wing groups. Police were forced to draft dozens of extra officers in to separate the warring factions, at a cost of millions. Earlier this year, 50 EDL supporters from across the country were jailed for a total of 75 years after a huge mob threw bottles, stones and smoke bombs at police during a demo in Birmingham. Advertisement

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 was in ruins last night as he suffered 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.

Role model: One of Afzal Amin's campaign posters encouraging youngsters to canvass for him

High profile: Amin meeting George Osborne at train manufacturer Bombardier in Derby

Influential: Amin with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at a seminar about sex crimes in war last year

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.’