Afzal Amin accused of trying to arrange announcement of an incendiary march by the far-right group, which he would then be credited with preventing

The Tory candidate in a key general election marginal has been suspended after allegedly hatching a plot with far-right extremists to win votes by stirring up racial tensions.

Afzal Amin is accused of scheming with the English Defence League (EDL) to announce an inflammatory march against a new ‘mega-mosque’ in the constituency of Dudley North, in the West Midlands. The idea, according to the Mail on Sunday, was for the protest to be scrapped, with Amin taking the credit for defusing the situation.

In return he allegedly promised that he would be an “unshakeable ally” for the EDL in parliament and help bring their views to the mainstream.

A Conservative party spokesman confirmed that Amin – who was apparently filmed covertly talking about the deal – had been suspended.

“Following an emergency meeting it has been decided to suspend him as a candidate with immediate effect,” the spokesman said. “The Conservative party views this as a matter of extremely serious concern.”

A full disciplinary hearing is expected to be held on Tuesday, when Amin will be able to explain his actions and a decision on his future will be taken.

Prime minister David Cameron is understood to have been informed of the situation and approves of the way it is being handled.

Amin was reportedly filmed by former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, who blew the whistle on the plot because he objected to being used as a pawn.

Amin, said to have been described on his Tory party website as a former Army education officer to Princes William and Harry, outlined his plan to Robinson and current EDL chairman Steve Eddowes at an Indian restaurant in Birmingham on Monday.

The 40-year-old allegedly suggested EDL members could be paid to canvass on his behalf, and floated the idea of a phoney protest – just weeks after a real demonstration in Dudley by 600 EDL supporters led to 30 arrests.

“This is my fantasy,” Amin apparently says in the footage. “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 of police asked Afzal Amin, members of the Muslim community, we’ve sat together and ... we’re going to work closely together’.”

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

Paying people to canvass in elections is an offence under the Representation of the People Act 1983.

But Amin is said to have told the men: “I’ll put it to you bluntly. I need two white working class lads to go round those areas to say to people, ‘You support the army, if you support the troops then vote for this guy’. That’s what I need.”

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

Amin had been due to take on the sitting Labour MP, Ian Austin, in the general election on 7 May. Austin had a majority of 649 in Dudley North in 2010.

Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth said: “Decent people in politics share the wide consensus that the EDL are quite simply despicable. These allegations regarding such a senior Conservative party figure in Afzal Amin are quite simply jaw dropping.

“Given these allegations the Tory party should take immediate steps to suspend Mr Amin from membership. What’s more the Tory party must also investigate who else might have been involved.

“The Tory campaign is tonight mired in deeply damaging allegations, such as those against Mr Amin and the ongoing controversy surrounding Tory chairman Grant Shapps.

“As the Tories turn in on themselves, beset by problems of their own making, only Labour has a better plan for a better future.”

Austin said: “This is a shocking story. A really appalling turn of events, but it doesn’t matter who the Tory candidate is because it’s the Conservative government’s policies that mean 400 staff at Russells Hall hospital are facing redundancy.”