Who is Keith Vaz? Labour MP who resigned after male prostitute and drugs scandal
KEITH VAZ has resigned as chairman of the Home Affairs select committee after being accused of hiring male prostitutes and offering to pay for drugs. But who is the scandal-hit MP?
Mr Vaz resigned from his post as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, which is overseeing a major shake-up into prostitution laws.
He said in a statement: "It is in the best interst of the 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."
Mr Vaz reportedly paid two men for sex and offered to pay for cocaine, though he made clear he would not take any himself.
The 59-year-old father of two is also said to have asked the men to bring to bring the sex drug poppers and bragged about having unprotected intercourse with another male sex worker.
The alleged romp took place at the veteran MP’s north London flat, just 12 miles away from the home he shares with his wife.
John Whittingdale, the former Culture Secretary, said his resignation would be a "sensible course of action". While Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said: "He is not fit to be an MP."
MP Keith Vaz 'paid for male escorts'
Who is Keith Vaz?
Mr Vaz has been nicknamed Vaz-eline for his habit of slipping through controversy.
He was first elected to the Leicester East seat in 1987, at the time becoming Labour’s youngest MP.
He soon rose up the ranks, becoming Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Attorney General before being appointed Europe Minister by Tony Blair in 1999.
But after just two years he was forced to resign after being accused of using his position to help two Indian billionaires gain British passports.
The MP admitted to intervening on their behalf but was cleared of failing to declare a £1,200 payment the brothers had made to a company run by his wife, Maria.
Mr Vaz stepped down from his role, citing health reasons, and has not returned to front bench politics since.
A year later, in 2002, he was suspended from the House of Commons for making false allegations against an ex-policewoman, who he said had made distressing phone calls to his elderly mother.
The retired officer had a friend who had worked for Mrs Vaz and who said that the couple had employed an illegal immigrant. No evidence was found to support these claims, but the Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges ruled that the ex-policewoman had not made any such call to Mr Vaz's mother.
The “Teflon MP” was one of many MPs who came under fire during the expenses scandal of 2009, after it was revealed that he had claimed more than £75,000 for a flat in Westminster just 12 miles away from his family home.
While he had not broken any laws, he was ordered to pay back a four-figure sum.
This year, Mr Vaz argued against a proposed ban on the sex drug poppers, also known as amyl nitrate.
He told Parliament: “The Government recognises that representations have been made to the effect that poppers have a beneficial health effect in enabling anal sex.” The drugs were later removed from a list of substances to be banned by the legal highs bill.
Most recently, the MP headed an inquiry into prostitution laws, focusing on whether “the balance in the burden of criminality should shift to those who pay for sex rather than those who sell it”.
Many have said that this latest scandal has created he has a conflict of interest, leading to calls for Mr Vaz’s resignation.
Before entering politics, Mr Vaz studied law at Cambridge University and enjoyed a successful career as a solicitor.
He was born in 1956 in the Colony of Aden (now part of Yemen) and moved to England nine years later with his parents, who were originally from Goa, India.
He has two sisters: Valerie, 61, Labour MP for Walsall South, and Penny, a solicitor.