In blow to UK's Cameron, election candidate quits over far-right plot claim

A Muslim candidate for Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives withdrew from a May 7 national election on Monday, the party said, a day after he was suspended over allegations of a plot to stir up racial tension to win votes.

The resignation is damaging to Cameron's party, which needs to win seats like Dudley North, where the scandal erupted, from the opposition Labour Party, to have a chance of obtaining a majority. Afzal Amin, who had been due to stand for election in the important seat in central England, was shown in video footage and telephone recordings published at the weekend trying to persuade the far-right English Defence League (EDL) to announce a march against a new mosque in the area.

Amin, campaigning ahead of an unusually close national election, then allegedly planned to take the credit for brokering the suspension of the protest. A Conservative Party statement said Amin had resigned as a candidate with immediate effect. The party must now select a new candidate only weeks before the ballot.

Earlier on Monday, Amin said he'd only been trying to help improve ties between the area's Muslims and disgruntled white working class voters.

He said he'd done nothing wrong and had been set up by the far-right EDL, which organises protests against what it says is growing Muslim influence in British society."I didn't realise this was the start of a year-long sting operation and that's really what I've been subject to here," Amin told BBC radio.

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