NRI, Keith
Vaz , MP (Leicester East) 2005
London, May 06, 2005
Keith Vaz of Goan origin won the elections with a record margin
of 15,800. Vaz has represented Leicester East since 1987. Asians
constitute 49 per cent of 67,000 electorate in the constituency.
Born in Aden in 1956, Keith Vaz was appointed Parliamentary Secretary
at the Lord Chancellor's Department by the Prime Minister, Tony
Blair MP, on 17 May 1999.
He is the first elected Member of Parliament of Asian origin to
serve as a Minister in the United Kingdom Government. Mr Vaz was
educated at St Joseph's Covent in Aden, and The Latymer Upper School
in London.
He also attended Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge, and finally
the College of Law, Lancaster Gate. Keith was a practising solicitor
from 1982 until 1987, working in local government and subsequently
for a number of law centres and advice centres.
Politically Mr Vaz has been MP for Leicester East since June 1987,
also Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Attorney-General and
Solicitor-General from 1997 until his appointment as Parliamentary
Secretary.
He married Maria Fernandes in 1993. They have a son and a daughter
NRI, Keith
Vaz second "most expensive" MP
LONDON, Oct 22, 2004
PTI
NRI Keith Vaz, former minister in the Blair cabinet, is the second
"most expensive" MP in Britain, owing to his services
to his constituency, which has a substantial proportion of ethnic
minorities particularly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
According to official documents, Vaz, who accounted for 164,265
pounds in the year ending in April this year, put his 22,409 pounds
in combined postage and stationery costs.
"My constituency has practically the highest proportion
of ethnic minorities in the country and we are often writing to
New Delhi, Dakha, and Islamabad, as well as the Home Office and
Foreign Office," Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East, said.
"MPs are basically immigration case workers now that advice
centres have been cut. I have a four-hour surgery, I see a person
every five minutes and it always overruns." Vaz said the
8,772 pounds in the "other expenses" column was the
salary paid for one of his staff who went on permitted leave to
care for a paralysed partner.
The highest total spent on postage and stationery last year was
40,923 by Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden.
Claire Curtis-Thomas, 46-year-old Labour MP from Crosby, topped
the list with 168,889 pounds' expenses bill.
Mr Vaz resigned
as Europe minister because of illness
London, Feb 08, 2002
BBC Report
Former Europe Minister Keith Vaz faces being suspended from the
House of Commons for a month for misconduct.
The Commons standards and privileges committee has found Mr Vaz
committed serious breaches of the MPs' code of conduct and showed
contempt for the House of Commons.
He says the report has been rushed out and published before the
full facts were known.
But his claim that the police would be investigating the matter
further have been denied by Leicestershire police.
In a statement, the force said there was no evidence that a witness
had made malicious calls to Mr Vaz's mother, as the ex-minister
claimed.
The MPs' recommendation will now have to be approved by a Commons
vote but it is almost unheard of for the Commons to turn down
such a recommendation.
The findings follow an investigation by parliamentary standards
commissioner Elizabeth Filkin, who leaves her job next week.
Response to Filkin
Mr Vaz was under investigation over complaints that he had not
fully declared his financial links to the Hinduja brothers, whose
passport applications caused the storm that saw Peter Mandelson
resign from government.
MPs on the committee said they would have been satisfied with
an apology for the complaints upheld against him had it not been
for the way he treated Ms Filkin's investigation.
"We have found that Mr Vaz committed serious breaches of
the code of conduct and a contempt of the House," said the
committee.
The one-month suspension will be seen as a serious censure of
the Labour MP.
The complaints the committee upheld against Mr Vaz were:
He previously gave "misleading information" to the standards
committee and Ms Filkin about his financial relationship to the
Hinduja brothers
He failed to register his paid employment at the Leicester Law
Centre when he first entered Parliament in 1987
He failed to register a donation from the Caparo group in 1993
But the committee's most serious criticism comes about the way
Mr Vaz has responded to the investigation of those complaints
since February 2000.
Political reaction
The MPs say he refused to put himself before the kind of scrutiny
expected of an MP, although he argues he has been "very cooperative".
They also conclude that Mr Vaz "recklessly" made an
untrue and damaging allegation that his mother received nuisance
telephone calls from a woman making a key complaint against him.
Filkin has complained of obstruction from Vaz
Mr Vaz also accused Ms Filkin of interfering with a criminal investigation
after himself setting the MPs' watchdog on a "false line
of inquiry", says the report.
But the MP says the police now plan to investigate his claims
about the nuisance calls and he accused Ms Filkin of failing to
follow her own procedures.
"This report would have been very different had it been
completed properly by the new parliamentary commissioner instead
of being rushed out as Elizabeth Filkin's last hurrah," added
Mr Vaz.
Earlier, former Independent MP Martin Bell said the report on
Mr Vaz's conduct would reflect on the prime minister Tony Blair,
who has mounted a vigorous defence of Mr Vaz in the past.
Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith says Mr Blair should now
"make clear whether his defence of Mr Vaz is still absolute."
Liberal Democrat spokesman Norman Baker said: "Today's decision
brings into question why Mr Vaz was allowed to remain in ministerial
office for as long as he did."
Before last year's general election, Mr Blair said each time
allegations had been levelled at Mr Vaz they were found to be
groundless but critics just moved to another set of claims.
Resignation
An investigation last year upheld only one minor charge against
Mr Vaz, out of a total of 18, and the standards committee took
no disciplinary action.
But Ms Filkin said she could not complete her inquiries on another
eight complaints because she said Mr Vaz failed to give her prompt
and clear answers.
Mr Vaz, who was last year cleared of wrongdoing over the Hinduja
passports affair, resigned from the government after the general
election, citing ill health.
|
