Keith Vaz: Call for Vaz-led prostitution inquiry to be axed over sex allegations as Jeremy Corbyn calls it 'a private matter'

Sex claims: MP Keith Vaz
PA
Mark Chandler5 September 2016
WEST END FINAL

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The inquiry into prostitution led by Labour MP Keith Vaz should be disbanded after a newspaper alleged he paid for the services of male escorts, a campaign group has said.

A report in the Sunday Mirror alleged the married father-of-two met the men at his flat in north west London.

He is alleged to have boasted about sleeping with a prostitute without protection and offering to to cover the cost of cocaine for the men.

Nordic Model Now (NMN) said the Home Affairs Select Committee should immediately scrap the Prostitution Inquiry because the MP's actions were tantamount to a conflict of interests.

The inquiry, led by Mr Vaz as the committee's chairman, is looking into the way prostitution is treated in legislation.

In a statement on the allegations, Mr Vaz said: "It is deeply disturbing that a national newspaper should have paid individuals to have acted in this way.

"I have referred these allegations to my solicitor Mark Stephens of Howard Kennedy who will consider them carefully and advise me accordingly.

"At this time I do not want there to be any distraction from the important work the Home Affairs Select Committee undertakes so well.

"Select committees do vital work in holding the government and others to account. We are due to publish two reports, one into anti-Semitism and the other into FGM (female genital mutilation) in the next few days, in addition we have a number of key witnesses.

"I will of course inform committee members first of my plans when we meet on Tuesday. My decision has been based entirely on what is in the best interests of the committee which I have had the privilege of chairing for the last nine years."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn today insisted the controversy was a private matter.

"I think it should be treated as a private matter. He is going to meet the Home Affairs Select Committee and discuss with them what his role will be in the future.

"I'm not sure what that decision will be. I leave it to him to decide on that," he told the BBC.

Asked if he was happy for Mr Vaz to remain in the Labour Party, Mr Corbyn said: "Well, he hasn't committed any crime that I know of.

"As far as I'm aware it is a private matter, and I will obviously be talking to Keith."

Former culture secretary John Whittingdale said that Keith Vaz's reported resignation seemed "sensible".

"I haven't read the whole of the allegations and therefore it's difficult to comment on them," he told Sky News's Murnaghan programme.

"But Keith Vaz as I understand it is that he will stand aside from the chairmanship of the select committee.

Keith Vaz at a Labour conference party in 2015 
Jeremy Selwyn

"Given the areas of which the committee is responsible, that does seem to me to be a sensible course of action. I wouldn't want to comment beyond that."

Labour shadow health secretary Diane Abbott said this was a "dreadful" experience for Mr Vaz, and his wife and children.

"I have known Keith for over 30 years, I think this must be a dreadful time for him, and his family - his wife and his two children. And I would rather not comment," she told Sky News.

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