Keith Vaz faces being booted out of Commons after Labour MP ‘expressed willingness’ to buy cocaine
SHAMED Labour MP Keith Vaz is facing suspension from the House of Commons for six months over his offer to buy cocaine for male escorts in 2016.
In a damning report the Commons standards watchdog concluded Mr Vaz had "expressed willingness" to purchase the Class A drug, which it said was a "very serious breach" of the MPs' code of conduct.
In 2016 a newspaper investigation uncovered Mr Vaz, who has been the MP for Leicester East since 1987, posing as a washing machine salesman called Jim and offering to cover the cost of Class A drugs.
Mr Vaz told investigators he did not pay for sex and the men were there to discuss "decorating his flat".
The committee said his explanation the escorts were there to discuss the redecoration of the flat and that he may have been given a "spiked drink" was "not believable and, indeed, ludicrous".
After the scandal broke, the Labour MP, 62, issued a public apology to his wife and kids and quit as head of the Home Affairs committee in 2016.
Police declined to take action following an investigation.
However, he was appointed to the Justice Select Committee just a month later, in October 2016, after he was nominated by his party.
Parliament's sleaze watchdog found he significantly damaged the reputation of parliament by "expressing willingness to purchase" cocaine for male prostitutes, and has ordered the longest ever suspension of an MP.
SHAMED MP
It said that by failing to co-operate fully with the Commons inquiry process, Mr Vaz had shown "disrespect for the House's standards system" and caused "significant damage" to the reputation and integrity of the Commons.
Following today's long-awaited findings, Tory MP Andrew Bridgen tweeted: "1148 days after my complaint to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, they have has upheld my complaint into Keith Vaz, his conduct during the enquiry shows he is not fit to represent anywhere in Parliament, Leicester deserves much better than this."
The committee recommended Mr Vaz be banned from Parliament for six months.
If approved by MPs, the six-month suspension would be the longest ban given to any MP since records began in 1949.
A statement posted on Mr Vaz's website said: "Keith Vaz has been treated for a serious mental-health condition for the last three years as a result of the events of August 27 2016.
"He has shared all the medical reports in confidence with the Committee.
"He has nothing further to say on this matter other than what was said in his oral and written statements to the Committee and to the Commissioner."
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Mr Vaz is Parliament's longest-serving British Asian MP.
He has faced a string of controversies during his Parliamentary career.
In 2000 the Parliamentary standards watchdog found that he had failed to declare two payments worth at total of £4,500 from a solicitor.
He was previously suspended from the Commons for one months in 2002 after the standards and privileges committee found he had recklessly made a damaging and untrue allegation against a former police officer who had made a complaint about him.
