A furious business leader has challenged millionaire newspaper editor Sir Paul Dacre to come to Luton and justify his newspaper's slurs on the town.

Bedfordshire Police have already written an official letter of complaint to the Daily Mail over its coverage in the wake of the London bombings.

Luton South MP Margaret Moran is taking the tabloid to the Press Complaints Commission after slamming its reporting.

And the University of Luton is considering legal action over stories which linked it with one of the bombers.

Now Lee Allen, who represents the Bury Park Traders' Association, has challenged Sir Paul – knighted for his services to journalism, and pictured left – to come to Luton and see for himself whether the town really is a hotbed of radical Muslim activity.

The paper, which sells 2.35 million copies a day and topped a poll as Britain's most trusted tabloid earlier this year, ran extensive reports exploring the Luton 'connection' in the wake of revelations that the London bombers set off for the capital from the town's railway station.

It labelled Bury Park as 'Al Qaeda Street' and claimed the area was a fertile recruiting ground for extremist Muslim groups.

In an angry email Lee told the under-fire editor: "Luton has been mentioned because we have a station and good rail links which made access to London easier. That is all.

"You talk of Al Muhajiroun having stalls in Luton. If you mean the two, yes two, men with a pasting table, a black flag and some pamphlets, I have seen them – but so what?

"Does that mean that the 30,000 or so Muslims who live here and Luton as a whole are tarnished with the same brush? I don't think so.

"Luton as a whole is shocked at what happened and we deeply regret that we are near a railway station and a motorway which made the route to London easier, but what happened is the work of twisted misguided people who are led by evil, ill-informed masters.

"The government is asking us to stay together – why are some members of the press trying to pull us apart?"

Sir Paul had failed to respond to Lee's invitation as the Herald&Post went to press, but the Bury Park businessman is aiming to use his top drawer connections to try to repair some of the damage done by the lurid headlines about the town.

He was recently appointed as a Prince's Trust ambassador for the East of England by Prince Charles, and he's also inviting the heir to the throne to visit Luton and see for himself how the town is coping with its many challenges.