One of the most explosive lines in Afzal Amin’s extraordinary statement is his claim that a senior police chief in Dudley supported his plotting and was aware of meetings between the EDL and Muslim leaders. Amin claims:

“I made sure I involved Chief Superintendent Chris Johnson from the start and I made clear, which is evident in the recordings, that I refused to do anything illegal… I informed Chief Superintendent Johnson, who was supportive of my plans of resolving very violent tensions through face to face dialogue, and he was aware of subsequent meetings between the EDL and members of the Dudley Muslim community.”

Yet in a statement released last night Chief Superintendent Johnson strenuously denies Amin’s allegations and insists he had no knowledge of what the rogue Tory candidate was up to:

“At no point have we ever discussed an EDL demonstration on the dates in question and I have no knowledge of his alleged plans… I asked for reassurances about the format [of a meeting between the EDL and Muslim leaders] and asked for specific details around who would mediate between the groups, where this would take place and so on. No further details were provided and I did not request that this meeting take place. To the best of my knowledge the meeting between the EDL and mosque leaders did not take place.”

Someone’s telling porkies…