A MUSLIM Bolton councillor has said there will never be room in the town for those who spread hatred and extremism — after radical cleric Anjem Choudary was convicted of terror offences.

Cllr Mudasir Dean, who represents Bradshaw, said it had taken ‘far too long’ to prosecute Choudary — who is facing up to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of swearing allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.

Cllr Dean also said he firmly believes Choudary should be kept in solitary confinement in prison, so he ‘does not have an audience to radicalise.’

And this action is now more likely after the government announced new measures to lock up the country’s most dangerous extremists in isolated high-security ‘prisons within prisons’ to stop them influencing other inmates.

Cllr Dean is a proud British Muslim who has previously called on all schools in Bolton to fly the union flag and sing the national anthem in assemblies as well as suggesting that St George's Day should be a national holiday.

He said: “Bolton is a friendly, welcoming and peaceful town where people from diverse communities live well together.

“There will never be room in our town for people who spread hatred and promote extremist ideology of any kind.”

On the subject of convicting Choudary, he added: “It has taken far too long to prosecute the hate preacher Anjem Choudary, past governments of all persuasions should have introduced legislation to make sure this did not happen.

“This must not happen again, the streets of Great Britain should be cleared of all hate preachers at the earliest opportunity.”

Asked if it would be against Choudary’s human rights to keep him isolated in prison, Cllr Dean said: “It would be against all of our human rights for him to be able to radicalise more people — I really think we need to make an example of someone like this.”

Police had been trying to bring Choudary to trial for 20 years but said he had managed to stay within the law until his arrest in 2014.

The force said many people tried for serious terror offences had been influenced by his speeches and lectures.