Excerpt:
The Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq has claimed mosques in Blackburn are more extreme than in his home country, according to an MP.
The shock comments were allegedly made by Dr Barham Salih, who visited the town as a guest of Jack Straw in 2005.
He is reported to have told a Conservative MP: "I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn.
"What I saw...would not be allowed here in Iraq - it would be illegal."
The comments have angered mosque leaders in the town, who have branded them "a load of rubbish".