The downfall of controversial MP Keith Vaz whose slimy reputation finally caught the better of him

“LET’S get this party started,” said an excited Keith Vaz to two rent boys he had invited to his flat barely a fortnight ago.

Well, a bash has begun — but it’s probably not what the former Minister for Europe had in mind.

The senior Labour MP, dubbed Mr Vazeline in ­Westminster because he has slipped loose from so many scandals, now finds his affairs and suitability for office under scrutiny like never before.

It took two days of solid ­criticism for the brass-necked 59-year-old to quit as chairman of the Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee after Sunday’s revelations of his dealings with the Romanian male prostitutes.

Even then he insisted the allegations, which included his offer to pay for cocaine for the boys, were “completely untrue”.

But last night it appeared that the MP’s links with various Romanians may have played a central role in his downfall..

They include his Romanian personal assistant Daniel ­Dragusin, who paid the rent boys, and Mr Dragusin’s flatmate Maria Costache, who worked at the London hotel where Mr Vaz met another young man, as well as other fellow Romanians including a gay reality TV star.

Yesterday a Metropolitan Police spokesman said that although no formal investigation has yet been launched, Mr Vaz’s case has been referred to its Special Enquiry Team “to assess and identify what criminal offences, if any, may have been committed”.

The week from hell for sharp-suited Mr Vaz began with a lurid report of how he set up a sex session at his London flat with the male hookers.

The previous day he texted one of them with a request for “poppers” — a sex-enhancing drug that he had wanted to keep legal.

When told another escort might join them for a foursome, Mr Vaz replied: “How will this work? Do you want me to f*** him first or all together?”

It was claimed that the escorts told him the Romanian liked to take cocaine before sex and Mr Vaz offered to cover the cost of the class A drug if it was brought up to the flat — though he said he did not want any himself.

The powerful Home Affairs Select Committee is responsible for looking at drugs and vice issues and is currently reviewing Britain’s prostitution laws.

For Mr Vaz to remain on it would have meant an insurmountable conflict of interest.

Next week he faces being sacked from Parliament’s Joint Committee on the National ­Security Strategy, and losing his seat on the Commons Liaison Committee.

His position on Labour’s main policy-making body, the National Executive, will also be discussed by the party next week.

There have also been calls for Mr Vaz to be stripped of his right to sit on the Privy Council of senior advisers to the Queen.

If only it were just sex, ­infidelity and drugs. But money also has a role in this scandal.

The session with the prostitutes on August 27 was at a flat in Edgware, North London, which Mr Vaz bought without a mortgage for £387,500 in June.

It was registered in his name and brought the number of properties owned by him and his lawyer wife Maria to seven — worth £4million in total — leading to questions over how he has managed to amass such a fortune on a salary of around £90,000.

Mr Vaz, who has been in the Commons since 1987, earns £74,926 as an MP, plus he pocketed £15,025 a year for chairing the select committee.

Last December Mrs Vaz bought a £500,000 one-bedroom flat in Pimlico, central London, in her own name.

The couple have a third London flat that is rented out, and a large family home in Stanmore, North ­London, which they bought for £1.1million in 2005 and is now worth more than £2million.

Mrs Vaz heads a small London immigration law firm, ­Fernandes Vaz Solicitors, and bought the building where it is based for £485,000 in March 2010. The couple also own two properties in Leicester, where Mr Vaz has his constituency.

His wife’s law firm is not registered with Companies House, making it impossible to assess its profitability, but ­sources suggest her salary is no more than £60,000 a year.

Yet on top of this, the couple sent their two children to private schools in Hertfordshire with annual fees totalling £35,000.

Mr Vaz has faced scrutiny and investigations over his finances for several years, although he has always denied any wrongdoing.

In September 2012 a police investigation found that between 1996 and 2001 almost £500,000 was deposited in a series of bank accounts ­belonging to the MP.

Police found he had seven or eight mortgages over the same period but he was able to make mortgage payments totalling more than his salary as an MP.

Mr Vaz insisted that his funds were the proceeds of property deals and no further action was taken.

During the MPs’ expenses scandal in 2009 it emerged Mr Vaz had claimed £75,000 for a Westminster flat only 12 miles from his family home and had then “flipped” his designated second home to one of his Leicester ­properties.

Mark Stephens, the MP’s lawyer, said this week his client bought his first property in Leicester for £24,000 in 1985, before he was an MP, and the second Leicester property was inherited from his mother after she died from cancer in 2003.

He said that the new flat in Edgware was bought by Mr Vaz with a loan from a “traditional lender”.

Mr Stephens added: “His wife is a successful lawyer. You will find everything was declared properly in the register of members’ interests.” There are further questions to be asked about Mr Vaz’s taste in friends and associates, including his former aide Mr Dragusin.

Since arriving in Britain eight years ago, he has been the MP’s chauffeur and personal assistant. Last night he was in hiding.

Mr Dragusin now lists himself on LinkedIn as working at diabetes charity Silver Star, which was founded by Mr Vaz. The charity has confirmed its funds were not used to pay the prostitutes, but there has been no explanation why Mr Dragusin paid them.

Mr Dragusin’s flatmate Maria Costache is an executive at London’s four-star Washington Mayfair hotel, where The Sun revealed this week that Mr Vaz allegedly stayed for free and met a series of young men two years ago.

Ms Costache — who had also gone to ground last night — is also the sole director of D&M London Cleaning Services, where Mr ­Dragusin and his father Marcel have worked in recent years.

Just three weeks ago Mr and Mrs Vaz flew to Romania where he was a godfather — a traditional role in Romanian weddings — when another former aide got married.

The aide's name has appeared in the official House of Commons register of members’ interests as Mr Vaz’s “researcher” or “secretary”.

But The Sun can reveal that the 29-year-old was also used by Mr Vaz as a chauffeur.

Another guest was the bride’s brother as well as a bisexual reality TV star and model.

The Washington Mayfair hotel is owned by Indian multi-millionaire Joginder Sanger, 74. He has been dubbed the “Asylum Tycoon” amid claims that his company was paid £4million in 2003 to house asylum seekers at another 400-bedroom hotel he owned in West London.

Five years ago Mr Sanger was named Asian of the Year at an awards ceremony. Mr Vaz was among the judges.

In the Indian state of Goa, Mr Vaz’s family are struggling to take in his reversal of fortunes.

A cousin, 36-year-old Vilanova Lobo, told The Sun: “As Indians we do not accept homosexual relationships. Our country has immense values. Our family culture brings us together — one life and one wife.

“Goan people have close ties with families but I suppose things change in the West.”

The questions have certainly started for Mr Vaz. Whether his political career is finished hangs in the balance.