Speaker stopped Tory MP’s Vaz claims
Alarm raised over sex scandal politician a year ago QUIT NOW SAY LOCALS IN PROTEST AT HIS HQ
COMMONS Speaker John Bercow stopped an MP from making allegations about sex scandal colleague Keith Vaz A YEAR AGO.
Andrew Bridgen, Tory MP for North West Leicestershire – 15 miles from Mr Vaz’s Leicester East constituency – wrote to the Speaker on September 3 last year.
Mr Bridgen said that should the allegations be substantiated then Labour’s Mr Vaz should be suspended as chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Five days later Mr Bercow replied that he had no power to remove a select committee chair and warned Mr Bridgen not to use Parliamentary privilege to raise the matter in a Commons debate.
The Speaker said: “It would be inappropriate for you to make allegations of this nature against a colleague on the floor of the House”
On December 8 Mr Bridgen wrote to Mr Vaz and raised the allegations with him. Married Mr Vaz, 59, replied two days later, saying: “The suggestion you make is highly defamatory.”
The new revelations emerged after Westminster was rocked by details of Mr Vaz’s meetings with male escorts exclusively told by the Sunday Mirror.
He paid for sex at his London flat while chair of the select committee, which had been reviewing Britain’s stance on prostitution and drugs.
Yesterdayerday Mr Bridgen said: “I was dismayed when the Speaker appeared ed to dismiss my concerns ncerns out of hand.
“To the casual observerver t hes hese e events had all the hallmarks rks of an establishshment coverup. Myy VOTERS demonstrated outside Mr Vaz’s constituency headquarters demanding he quit as their MP.
Protests were staged at his two offices in Leicester.
Sujata Barot, of the Belgrave Community Neighbourhood Watch group, said: “He has apologised to the Home Affairs Select Committee but he concerns regarding Mr Vaz long preceded the Sunday Mirror revelations.” Two male escorts told how they had been meeting up with the MP. At the last rendezvous, on August 27, they went to his flat near his £2.1million family home in Edgware, North West London. Father-of-two Mr Vaz had earlier texted the pair asking them to bring poppers, the sex-enhancing drug. One escort sent a message saying he was buying the drug and the MP replied: “Great.” The men arrived at 11.30pm and the conversation turned to sex as Mr Vaz said: “We need to get this party started.” There was much talk of a possible has not apologised to us yet. We are the people who have to bare the brunt, just like he does, of all the jokes about ‘Jim the washing machine salesman’.
“Well you cannot wash this dirty laundry in the media and be done with it. We feel embarrassed, we feel ashamed and we don’t want to go through this again and again.”
Fellow protester Julie Walker said: “I feel I no longer want him as my MP.
“This protest has given me the fourth man joining them – a Romanian. The escorts said he liked cocaine while having sex and Mr Vaz offered to pay for the drug “next time”.
But the MP made it clear he did not want any cocaine himself.
The escorts said that when they asked Mr Vaz his name he said it was Jim – then spelt it out, J-I-M – and that he sold industrial washing machines.
Last night the men insisted they were right to expose Mr Vaz.
One said: “Some people may be upset by what we did. But we believe exposing a public person for this is the right thing.
“Vaz has two lives – Jim and Keith. He’s the biggest liar I’ve ever met – and the best actor.”
Mr Vaz has resigned as chair of the Home Affairs Committee. But he has not stepped down from an influential post on a Commons security council and has vowed to stay on as an MP. opportunity to voice my opinion. If I had not had this opportunity, I would have to wait four years to vote.”
The protests were held on Friday. Yesterday, Mr Vaz had been due to chair a panel debating local health issues in Leicester – but did not show up.
Local councillor Rory Palmer said: “Keith Vaz had agreed to chair the session some time ago and his name was on the agenda. But he wasn’t there and I have had no notification from him.”