A senior Labour councillor is calling for a demonstration In Walsall by the far-right, English Defence League to be banned by the Home Secretary.
Councillor Tim Oliver, Labour group leader on Walsall Council, said the hate group’s plan to come to the borough on 29th September was nothing but an attempt to intimidate the local Muslim community.
Posters on Twitter and Facebook said the EDL Leader Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, would be attending.
Cllr Oliver said at present it is unclear if the group plans to hold a static demonstration which police are powerless to prevent; in which case he will ask the Home Secretary, Theresa May, to use her powers to ban it.
Stressing the anti-Muslim group was not wanted in Walsall, Cllr Tim Oliver said: ‘We have a good record of community relations in the borough based on mutual respect and tolerance.
‘Past demonstrations by this rag-bag group of racists and football hooligans have time and time again ended in violence, public disorder and assaults on police officers and members of the public.
‘The EDL is a race hate group who are deliberately confrontational. In the past they have caused major trouble in Birmingham and Dudley and we simply don’t want them in Walsall.’
Cllr Oliver added he would ask the leaders’ of Walsall Council’s other political parties to join him in asking the Home Secretary to prevent the demonstration going ahead.