The Labour leader of Birmingham City Council has called on an embattled councillor Muhammad Afzal to ‘consider his position’ as Lord Mayor elect.
John Clancy believes he has been left with little option following the release of a recording by the Birmingham Mail in which Coun Afzal called David Cameron an Islamophobe.
It now seems likely that the councillor - who is also chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque - will step aside as the next Lord Mayor, with a new Labour councillor selected instead.
Coun Clancy said: “Clearly the position of Lord Mayor and Lord Mayor elect is with the Labour group and the Labour have made their decision.
“I’ve spoken to Coun Afzal face to face since the recordings have been made available and repeated what I said over the weekend to him, repeated with more strength.
“I believe in these circumstances - although it is a matter for the Labour group - Coun Afzal should consider his position as Lord Mayor elect.”
Coun Clancy also reiterated his statement from the weekend, made before the recording confirmed Coun Afzal talking had hit out at a political meeting, where the Government’s Prevent anti-terror strategy was criticised and where he called David Cameron an Islamophobe - which he later denied.
Coun Afzal did not respond to our call for a comment.
In his weekend statement about the Lord Mayor elect’s comments, Coun Clancy had stressed he and the council were fully behind Prevent.
“The first thing I must stress is that I do not agree with the reported comments, which in no way reflect the position of Birmingham City Council,’’ he had said.
“We continue to work closely with our communities across the city, with colleagues in West Midlands Police and at the Home Office to ensure that neither intolerance nor fanatical extremism has a place in Birmingham.
“In fact, one of the first things I did as leader of the city council was to request a full counter-terrorism briefing from West Midlands Police and earlier this month I attended the Contest Board to discuss this important issue.
“I also recently joined 60 of my fellow councillors for a Prevent briefing. That figure underlines the importance of this issue and there was a shared cross-party determination to fight intolerance and extremism of any kind.
“While I can understand community concerns around the current media focus on Muslim communities and Prevent, I can assure you that our approach covers all forms of extremism.”
*Now listen to damning speech
