Afzal Amin resigns as Conservative election candidate following EDL plot
Suspended MP Afzal Amin has resigned from the Conservative party with immediate effect after appearing to do a deal with the far-right English Defence League (EDL) to win votes.
The parliamentary candidate for Dudley North was recorded discussing with EDL leaders plans to announce an anti-mosque protest which he would later take credit for stopping.
Amin, who was suspended by the Tories "with immediate effect" following the allegations, was due to face a party hearing on Tuesday.
Amin had defended his meetings with the EDL as "very normal conflict resolution" and argued he had been victim of a "year-long sting operation". On Monday morning he told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme:
There is no way I would have the confidence to propose such a manoeuvre to the EDL leadership. He [Tommy Robinson] is the one that proposed absolutely that we would do this march and then we would negotiate our way out of it. When he first came to me he presented himself in tears. I didn't realise this was the start of a year-long sting operation. That is really what I have been subject to here.