So why did Tory ministers help Vaz land justice job?
TEN Cabinet ministers helped to elect disgraced Labour MP Keith Vaz to Parliament’s powerful justice committee.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox joined seven Cabinet colleagues in helping to install Mr Vaz in the influential role just weeks after he was embroiled in a sex and drugs scandal.
Mr Vaz was nominated for the role by Labour, despite the fact detectives are still considering whether to investigate him over claims he offered to buy cocaine for two male prostitutes he had hired for an orgy.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen attempted to block the move by forcing a Commons vote, arguing that Mr Vaz was ‘not fit to be an MP, let alone a member of the justice committee’.
But Tory whips mounted an unofficial operation to ensure he got the job on the committee that oversees the work of England’s Justice Department. As a result, 159 Tory MPs backed Mr Vaz in a back-room stitchup designed to prevent Labour MPs blocking Tory appointments in future. By contrast, only 38 Labour MPs were among the 42 other MPs who supported him, with even his MP sister Valerie staying away.
The whips’ cynical tactics provoked fury last night.
Tory grandee Sir Nicholas Soames said: ‘I do not believe Keith Vaz should be a member of a select committee and particularly not the justice committee while he has a big cloud hanging over him. It makes a mockery of the system.’
Mr Bridgen said: ‘Keith Vaz has got a police and a standards investigation hanging over him. To vote him onto the justice committee brings the system into severe disrepute.’
Tory whips declined to comment on the operation. But a party source said if they had allowed Mr Vaz to be blocked, Labour would start vetoing Conservative nominations.
The former minister was forced to resign as chairman of the Commons home affairs committee in September following newspaper revelations that he hired two male escorts at a time when the committee was investigating prostitution.
Claims he offered to pay for cocaine for the pair are the subject of a complaint to the police and the Commons standards watchdog.
The Leicester East MP was recorded asking the two Eastern European men to bring the party drug poppers and discussing unprotected sex during a 90-minute rendezvous.
Mr Vaz, a married father of two, could not be contacted for comment last night.
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