EDL’s Alan Lake loses his job at development bank

The man known as Alan Lake, a key strategist and funder behind the racist English Defence League (EDL) is out of his job at a major international development bank.

The news comes the week after another shadowy EDL strategist, Chris Knowles, was sacked by Leeds council.

Lake, whose real name is Alan Ayling, masterminded the EDL’s strategy of bringing together football hooligan firms into an anti-Muslim army of racist street thugs.

He was suspended from his post as a database team manager at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in December last year after his real identity was exposed.

The EBRD has now confirmed that Ayling’s employment “has ended” – and that he had not returned to the bank since his suspension last year.

Socialist Worker, 18 August 2012