Speaker accused of pulling punches on Keith Vaz in row over donations

THE Speaker last night denied blocking an attempt to tell Parliament about police investigations into Keith Vaz because he had received thousands from donors linked to the MP.

Records show that £41,000 of the £58,000 raised for John Bercow’s last two general election campaigns came from people with connections to Mr Vaz.

Yesterday Mr Bercow insisted he had handled all matters involving Mr Vaz in line with parliamentary rules and strongly refuted any suggestion he had unfairly favoured the Leicester East MP.

Narinder Singh Chadha, the former chairman of Mr Vaz’s diabetes charity Silver Star, told The Times he gave £2,501 to Mr Bercow’s 2010 election campaign after Mr Vaz asked for the donation.

Other donations to Mr Bercow included £5,000 from the London College of Accountancy, which also gives money to Mr Vaz, and £2,500 from the late Lord Noon, a Labour donor whose Commons memorial tribute was hosted by Mr Vaz.

Mr Bercow received £7,500 from Sun Mark, a food company founded by Mr Vaz’s friend Rami Ranger, and £5,000 from Madhu’s, a restaurant chain run by Sanjay and Sanspeak jeev Anand, friends of both Mr Vaz and Mr Bercow.

Neeraj Patil, a Labour councillor and associate of Mr Vaz, donated £2,500 through his business Dreamsland. He also gave Mr Bercow a wooden bust of himself.

All donations were declared by Mr Bercow and within the rules.

But Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said last night the connections raised questions about Mr Bercow’s handling of allegations involving Mr Vaz.

In September 2015, Mr Bridgen wrote to Mr Bercow requesting he contact police to ask about inquiries they were making into Mr Vaz and whether they conflicted with his position at the time as chairman of the home affairs select committee, but he said this was not part of his role.

After Mr Vaz stepped down from the role because of a rent boy scandal, Mr Bridgen tried to raise the matter of a separate police investigation involving the MP in the Commons in October last year as Mr Vaz was standing to join the justice select committee.

Mr Bercow interrupted him and said he should limit his remarks to information in the public domain.

A spokesman for Mr Bercow said last night he had at all times acted ‘to uphold the rules and conventions of the House of Commons’.

She added: ‘As a matter of parliamentary practice and procedure, a member is not given the floor to as a means of making a personal attack on the conduct of another member.

‘Mr Bridgen stated at the outset that he would try to limit his remarks to matters in the public domain. The Speaker permitted him to do so on matters of public record and stopped him when he sought to embark on other allegations, and again when he sought to reveal the contents of confidential correspondence with the Speaker.’

On the September 2015 request for Mr Bercow to speak to police, she said: ‘A select committee itself has the power to declare no confidence in its chair but the Speaker has precisely none.’

Regarding Mr Chadha’s suggestion that Mr Vaz had asked him to donate money to Mr Bercow, she said: ‘Whatever contacts eligible donors have with other Members of Parliament are a matter for them.’

Mr Vaz denied he had solicited donations for Mr Bercow and said Mr Chadha had been ‘misquoted and misrepresented’. He noted Sun Mark also gave £25,000 to Theresa May’s leadership campaign.

He added: ‘The British Asian community should not be criticised for making lawful political donations to political parties and individual MPs of their choice.’