The veteran Labour MP Keith Vaz has stepped down from the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee after being embroiled in a scandal following allegations that he paid for sex with male prostitutes.
He said: “It is in the best interest of the Home Affairs Select Committee that its important work can be conducted without any distractions whatsoever. I am genuinely sorry that recent events make it impossible for this to happen if I remain chair.”
Britain's longest serving Indian-origin lawmaker was caught meeting two Eastern European male escorts for sex over a week ago, according to the Sunday Mirror, which first exposed the scandal. Drugs were also mentioned during a secretly recorded conversation.
The Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said he would refer the matter to the Commons Standards commissioner and may also report Vaz to police.
As Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, he was overseeing the biggest shake-up of Britain's prostitution laws in a generation as well as probing drugs policy.
Sunday Mirror reported that Vaz had at least two meetings with the escorts. In a 90-minute rendezvous on August 27, the Labour MP for Leicester East since 1987 offered to cover the cost of cocaine if it was brought to the flat – but said he did not want any himself. He also told the pair to bring along poppers – the sex-enhancing drug.
Vaz paid the escorts in cash. Money was also paid into a bank account used by one of them by a man allegedly linked to a charity set up by the MP. He paid the money to escorts in a flat he owns near his family home in Edgware, North West London.
After the allegations made in the Sunday Mirror, Vaz said in a statement that he has referred the matter to his solicitor.
“It is deeply disturbing that a national newspaper should have paid individuals to have acted in this way. I am genuinely sorry for the hurt and distress that has been caused by my actions, in particular to my wife and children.”
On Tuesday in a statement, Vaz said: “The integrity of the Select Committee system matters to me. Those who hold others to account, must themselves be accountable.
“I am immeasurably proud of the work the Committee has undertaken over the last nine years, and I am privileged to have been the longest serving Chair of this Committee.
“This work has included the publication of 120 reports, hearing evidence from Ministers 113 times, and hearing from a total of 1,379 witnesses. I am very pleased that so many Members of the Committee have gone onto high office and Ministerial positions.”
Vaz said he had recommended that the former Conservative minister Tim Loughton takes over as chairman of the committee pending the full process of MPs electing his successor in the role.
He added: “I would like to thank my fellow members of the Committee, past and present, for their tremendous support. I would also like to thank the Clerks of the House for the amazing work they have done to strengthen the Select Committee system, we are not quite on par with the United States, but we are getting there.”
There were threats of a “no-confidence” vote if Vaz does not resign.
On Twitter, Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who sits on the Home Affairs committee, said Vaz had done a “fine job” as chairman, but said he had made the right decision in stepping down.
The 59-year-old Goan-origin lawmaker has headed the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Committee for the past 10 years.
What Papers Said:
“Shameless”, declares the front of the Daily Mail, above a photo of Keith Vaz with his wife.
It is among several papers to chart difficulties he has survived over the years, describing him as Teflon Vaz.
But its editorial says it is now impossible to see how he can stay on as an MP at all.
“Sex shame MP told quit now” declares the front of the Daily Mirror.
The paper says the man it calls the “Teflon MP” has “come badly unstuck”.
But The Times describes Vaz as “the great survivor of Labour politics” and “a veteran of parliamentary scandals” and says he started his fightback by appointing a celebrity lawyer, showing he is “determined to tough it out”.
However, its editorial says the behaviour of Keith Vaz is unsavoury and unworthy of an MP.
The Sun says Vaz is understood to have told friends he believes he can keep his role by handing over control temporarily and returning when the scandal washes over.
The paper also examines what it describes as “the rise and fall of a political Houdini” over 30 years, but, in its editorial, says this “ought to be fatal for his future as an MP”.
Back to Business:
The news of Vaz's sex scandal has been much publicised the world over, but to everyone's surprise, the MP on Monday made an unexpected appearance in the Commons chamber. In a show of defiance he asked two questions during Parliament's first day back from its summer recess.
Vaz has hired Mark Stephens, a celebrity lawyer who represented Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to defend his reputation.
Earlier he was seen leaving his north London family home with Maria Fernandes, his wife of 23 years and mother of his two children.
Charity Commission Probe:
The Charity Commission has said it was looking into allegations of payments to the escorts from a man allegedly linked to the Silver Star appeal.
Dr Malde Modhwadia, a trustee of Silver Star, told the Mail: “Everything is done in accordance with Charity Commission rules. I can guarantee that nothing illicit or illegal happened, as far as I am aware. If he allegedly paid money from Silver Star to the prostitute, that cannot be correct. Silver Star only pays money with an invoice.”
Referring to the sex allegations surrounding Vaz, Dr Modhwadia said: “There is nothing wrong with being gay but (constituents may feel) he has been leading a double life. But he is a good guy, he helps constituents. We don't want the charity to be associated with this.”
Asked about a member of Silver Star staff allegedly paying money into an account, he said: “No, that can't be true. The clear instruction is, you can't pay cash to anybody. Petty cash is also accounted for.”
Following are the trustees of Silver Star Appeal:
Dr Malde Modhwadia
Ms Roz Carter
Dr Dominie McConnell
Dr Indravandan Purshottamdas Patel
Leaders' Comment:
Prime Minister Theresa May has said the public must have confidence in its politicians.
Asked if he is happy for Vaz to remain in the Labour party, leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “Well, he hasn't committed any crime that I know of. As far as I am aware it is a private matter, and I will obviously be talking to Keith.”
Property Empire:
The two-bedroom flat in Edgware in which Vaz allegedly met the escorts was bought outright for £387,500 in June, according to Land Registry documents.
Vaz earns £74,926 as an MP and an additional £15,025 as chairman of the home affairs select committee.
In the past 16 years Vaz has declared outside earnings of only £1,950 in addition to rent worth more than £10,000 a year from one of the London flats he owns. Maria heads a small immigration law firm in London. It has been previously reported that she makes about £60,000 a year.
Vaz has faced scrutiny and investigations over his finances for several years, although he has always denied any wrongdoing.
Friends Support:
One friend of the MP suggested that Vaz may have been drugged by the men who the Sunday Mirror said were prostitutes, adding that he had thought they were decorators.
The friend said: “They were not paid to be prostitutes they were paid to paint the flat.”
Won't Quit NEC:
Vaz says he will not be resigning from Labour’s NEC.
Keith Vaz tells ITV’s Carl Dinnen that “he will stay on in his role on Labour's NEC. Says he 'feels fine'.”
Tim Loughton will serve as interim chair of the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, until a permanent successor is chosen.
Speaking after Vaz had informed committee colleagues of his intention to resign, Loughton said a new chairman should be in place in October.
He said Vaz had given a “very frank account of what had happened” and that the committee had accepted his resignation “with sadness”.
Ken Livingstone, former London Mayor and MP, defended Labour MP Keith Vaz over claims he paid for sex with prostitutes. He said: "Don't judge somebody on one mistake they make in their lives or even a couple of mistakes."
Keith Vaz's Profile:
Born in 1956 to Goan parents in Aden in what is now Yemen, he went to Cambridge University where he studied law and then became a solicitor.
He has been an MP for Leicester East since 1987.
He is Parliament's longest-serving British Asian MP.
His sister Valerie is Labour MP for Walsall South.
He was Britain's Minister for Europe under Tony Blair and said the vote to leave the EU was a “catastrophe”.
He has chaired the influential Home Affairs Select Committee since 2007.
