London, Feb o8, 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.