Keith Vaz - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
QUOTE
Vaz first stood for
Parliament in 1983........ For the
1987 election he was chosen to stand for the seat of
Leicester East, which had 16,000
British Asian voters. He won the election, defeating the right-wing
Conservative candidate
Peter Bruinvels, and became a popular
constituency MP, the first Asian MP since
Shapurji Saklatvala lost his seat in 1929. From 1987 to 1992 he was a
member of the
Home Affairs Select Committee.......
Filkin
inquiry
In February 2000 the Parliamentary standards watchdog
Elizabeth Filkin began an investigation after allegations that Vaz had
accepted several thousand pounds from a solicitor, Sarosh Zaiwalla, which he
had failed to declare. The allegations were made by Andrew Milne, a former
partner of Zaiwalla and were denied by both Vaz and Zaiwalla. Additional
allegations were made that Vaz had accepted money from other businessmen.
Vaz wrote to Filkin on 7 February 2000 to deny the allegations, and Filkin and Vaz went on to exchange letters until April 2000 in which Vaz responded to Filkin's queries. Geoffrey Bindman, who was acting as Vaz's solicitor, wrote to Filkin on 18 May to ask how much longer her inquiry was to take and Filkin produced a list of 48 questions she wanted answered on 29 June.
On 19 October Filkin wrote and asked for details about properties owned by Vaz, who replied that he owned three properties. However, evidence was later found by BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Vaz failed to disclose all his property interests to Filkin, and that documents showed that he owned four rather than three properties at the time. It was also discovered that he had transferred the ownership of a fifth property in London to his mother on 27 October, eight days after Filkin requested details of all his properties. Vaz said that the timing was a coincidence and the property was put on the market by Mrs. Vaz 6 months after the transfer. Land Registry documents showed that Vaz had become the owner of the property on 5 August 1988, and the Electoral Register showed that it had been Vaz's address in 1988 and 1999. Between February 1992 and February 1996 the property was the address of Reza Shahbandeh, who Vaz denied all knowledge of when asked.[5]
On 2 November Geoffrey Bindman warned Filkin that her inquiry could be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Filkin sent a final list of questions for Vaz to answer on 27 November, following which Bindman wrote to Filkin on 4 December that Vaz would not answer any more of her questions, but would co-operate with the Standards and Privileges Committee. Filkin told the Standards and Privileges Committee on 20 December that she had been unable to reach a conclusion on eight of the 18 allegations she had investigated.
On 12 March 2001, the Filkin report cleared Vaz of nine of the 28 allegations of various financial wrongdoings, but Elizabeth Filkin accused Mr. Vaz of blocking her investigation into eighteen of the allegations. He was censured for a single allegation - that he had failed to register two payments worth £4,500 in total from solicitor Sarosh Zaiwalla, whom he recommended for a peerage several years later. Mrs. Filkin announced in the same month a new inquiry which would focus on whether or not a company connected to Vaz received a donation from a charitable foundation run by the Hinduja brothers.
Filkin was reported on 18 March as angered by the way in which Vaz had "spun" her report, saying that he had been representing the report as clearing him when in fact she failed to reach conclusions on several complaints because he obstructed the inquiry. Filkin declined to comment, saying she felt her position on Vaz was set out in her report.
Hinduja
affair
In January 2001, immigration minister
Barbara Roche revealed in a written Commons reply that Vaz, along with
Peter Mandelson and other MPs, had contacted the
Home
Office about the
Hinduja brothers. She said that Vaz had made inquiries about when a
decision on their application for citizenship could be expected.
On January 25, Vaz had become the focus of Opposition questions about the Hinduja affair and many parliamentary questions were tabled, demanding that he fully disclose his role. Vaz said via a Foreign Office spokesman that he would be "fully prepared" to answer questions put to him by Sir Anthony Hammond QC who had been asked by the Prime Minister to carry out an inquiry into the affair.
Vaz had known the Hinduja brothers for some time; he had been present when the charitable Hinduja Foundation was set up in 1993, and also delivered a speech in 1998 when the brothers invited Tony and Cherie Blair to a Diwali celebration.
On 26 January 2001, Prime Minister Tony Blair was accused of prejudicing the independent inquiry into the Hinduja passport affair, after he declared that the Foreign Office minister Keith Vaz had not done "anything wrong". On the same day, Vaz told reporters that they would "regret" their behaviour once the facts of the case were revealed. "Some of you are going to look very foolish when this report comes out. Some of the stuff you said about Peter, and about others and me, you'll regret very much when the facts come out," he said. When asked why the passport application of one of the Hinduja brothers had been processed more quickly than normal, being processed and sanctioned in six months when the process can take up to two years, he replied, "It is not unusual."
On 29 January, the government confirmed that the Hinduja Foundation had held a reception for Vaz in September 1999 to celebrate his appointment as the first Asian Minister in recent times. The party was not listed by Vaz in House of Commons register of Members' Interests and John Redwood, then head of the Conservative Parliamentary Campaigns Unit, questioned Vaz's judgement in accepting the hospitality.
In March Vaz was ordered to fully co-operate with a new inquiry launched into his financial affairs by Elizabeth Filkin. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, Vaz's superior, also urged him to fully answer allegations about his links with the Hinduja brothers. Mr. Vaz met Mrs. Filkin on 20 March to discuss a complaint that the Hinduja Foundation had given the sum of £1,200 to Mapesbury Communications, a company run by his wife, in return for helping to organize a Hinduja-sponsored reception at the House of Commons. Vaz had previously denied receiving money from the Hindujas, but insisted that he made no personal gain from the transaction in question.[10][11]
In June 2001 Vaz said that he had made representations during the Hinduja brothers' applications for British citizenship while a backbench MP. Tony Blair also admitted that Vaz had "made representations" on behalf of other Asians.[12]
On 11 June 2001 Vaz was officially dismissed from his post as Europe Minister, to be replaced by Peter Hain. The Prime Minister's office said that Vaz had written to Tony Blair stating his wish to stand down for health reasons.[13]
In December 2001 Elizabeth Filkin cleared Vaz of failing to register payments to his wife's law firm by the Hinduja brothers, but said that he had colluded with his wife to conceal the payments. Filkin's report said that the payments had been given to his wife for legal advice on immigration issues and concluded that Vaz had gained no direct personal benefit, and that Commons rules did not require him to disclose payments made to his wife. She did, however, criticize him for his secrecy, saying, "It is clear to me there has been deliberate collusion over many months between Mr. Vaz and his wife to conceal this fact and to prevent me from obtaining accurate information about his possible financial relationship with the Hinduja family".[14]
Suspension
from House of Commons
In 2002 Vaz was
suspended from the
House of Commons for one month after a
Committee on Standards and Privileges inquiry found that he had made
false allegations against Eileen Eggington, a former policewoman. The
committee concluded that "Mr. Vaz recklessly made a damaging allegation
against Miss Eggington to the Commissioner, which was not true, and which
could have intimidated Miss Eggington or undermined her credibility".[15]
Eileen Eggington, a retired police officer who had served 34 years in the Metropolitan Police, including a period as deputy head of Special Branch, wanted to help a friend, Mary Grestny, who had worked as personal assistant to Vaz's wife. After leaving the job in May 2000, Grestny dictated a seven-page statement about Mrs. Vaz to Eggington in March 2001, who sent it to Elizabeth Filkin. Grestny's statement included allegations that Mr. and Mrs. Vaz had employed an illegal immigrant as their nanny and that they had been receiving gifts from Asian businessmen such as Hinduja brothers. The allegations were denied by Mr. Vaz and the Committee found no evidence to support them.[15]
In late 2001, Vaz complained to Leicestershire police that his mother had been upset by a telephone call from "a woman named Mrs. Egginton", who claimed to be a police officer. The accusations led to Ms. Eggington being questioned by police.[16] Vaz also wrote a letter of complaint to Elizabeth Filkin, but when she tried to make inquiries Vaz accused her of interfering with a police inquiry and threatened to report her to the Speaker of the House of Commons. Eggington denied that she had ever telephoned Vaz's mother and offered her home and mobile telephone records as evidence. The Commons committee decided that she was telling the truth. They added: "Mr. Vaz recklessly made a damaging allegation against Miss Eggington, which was not true and which could have intimidated Miss Eggington and undermined her credibility."
A letter to Elizabeth Filkin from Detective Superintendent Nick Gargan made it plain that the police did not believe Vaz's mother ever received the phone call and the person who came closest to being prosecuted was not Eggington but Vaz. Gargan said that the police had considered a range of possible offences, including wasteful employment of the police, and an attempt to pervert the course of justice. Leicestershire police eventually decided not to prosecute. "We cannot rule out a tactical motivation for Mr. Vaz's contact with Leicestershire Constabulary but the evidence does not support further investigation of any attempt to pervert the course of justice." [15]
The complaints the committee upheld against Mr. Vaz were:[17]
-
That he had given misleading information to the Standards and Privileges Committee and Elizabeth Filkin about his financial relationship to the Hinduja brothers.
-
That he had failed to register his paid employment at the Leicester Law Centre when he first entered Parliament in 1987.
-
That he had failed to register a donation from the Caparo group in 1993.
It was concluded that Vaz had "committed serious breaches of the Code of Conduct and showed contempt for the House" and it was recommended that he be suspended from the House of Commons for one month.[18]
Nadhmi Auchi
In 2001 the revelation that Vaz had
assisted Anglo-Iraqi
billionaire
Nadhmi Auchi in his attempts to avoid
extradition to
France
raised doubts about Vaz's suitability for high office and led to charges
that rich businessmen had received privileged access to Labour government
Ministers. Opposition MPs called for an investigation into what one dubbed
"Hinduja Mark II".[19]
Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi was wanted for questioning by French police for his alleged role in the notorious Elf Aquitaine fraud scandal which led to the arrest of a former French Foreign Minister. The warrant issued by French authorities in July 2000 Auchi of "complicity in the misuse of company assets and receiving embezzled company assets". It also covered Auchi's associate Nasir Abid and stated that if found guilty of the alleged offences both men could face 109 years in jail.[19]
Vaz was a director of the British arm of Auchi's corporation, General Mediterranean Holdings, whose previous directors had included Lords Steel and Lamont, and Jacques Santer. Vaz used his political influence on GMH's behalf; this included a party in the Park Lane Hilton to celebrate the 20th anniversary of GMH on 23 April 1999, where Lord Sainsbury presented Auchi with a painting of the House of Commons signed by Tony Blair, the Opposition leaders, and over 100 other leading British politicians. Lord Sainsbury later told The Observer that he did this "as a favour for Keith Vaz". In May 1999 Vaz resigned his post as a director after he was appointed a Minister. In a statement to The Observer, a GMH spokesman said that Vaz had been invited to become a GMH director in January 1999, yet company accounts showed Vaz as a director for the financial year ending December 1998.[19]
Labour confirmed in May 2001 that Auchi had called Vaz at home about the arrest warrant to ask him for advice. A spokesman said that Vaz "made some factual inquiries to the Home Office about the [extradition] procedure." This included advising Auchi to consult his local MP. The spokesman stressed that Vaz acted properly at all times and was often contacted by members of Britain's ethnic communities for help. In a Commons answer to Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker earlier the same month Vaz confirmed that "details of enquiries by Mr. Auchi have been passed to the Home Office".[19]
Since 2003 he has been a Member of the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee. In this post, he was criticized for unparliamentary language after he called Alan Milburn a "prick."[20]
42 Day
Rule Vote
Keith Vaz was again brought to public
attention when the
Daily Telegraph printed a hand written letter[21]
suggesting that Vaz had, or was due to receive, some sort of reward for
voting for the Government under the 42 Day Rule Vote in June 2008. In a
letter to Vaz, written on 12 June, a day after the key vote,
Geoff
Hoon wrote:
“Dear Keith… Just a quick note to thank you for all your help during the period leading up to last Wednesday’s vote. I wanted you to know how much I appreciated all your help. I trust that it will be appropriately rewarded!... With thanks and best wishes, Geoff.”
Vaz was originally against the idea of holding suspects for 42 days without charge, but he changed his mind a few days before the key vote. Although Prime Minister Gordon Brown was accused of offering rebel backbenchers a series of deals in exchange of their votes, Brown denied that any such deals were made.
Black Socialist Society
Labour's
National Executive Committee (NEC) voted to resurrect the defunct Black
Socialist Society (BSS) in 2006. As part of this, the party set up an
Ethnic Minority Taskforce. Tony Blair appointed Vaz to chair this
taskforce. When membership of the BSS exceeded 2,500 in early 2007, the
society qualified for its own seat on the NEC.[22]
Vaz was elected to this post on March 10 2007.[23]
Home Affairs
Select Committee
Vaz was elected Chair of the
Home Affairs Select Committee, replacing
John Denham, on 26 July 2007. He was unusually nominated to the
Committee by the Government, rather than by the quasi-independent Committee
of Selection which, under the Standing Orders of the House, nominates
members to select committees. The Leader of the House argued that this was
because there was not sufficient time to go through the usual procedure
before the impending summer recess. The Chairman of the Committee of
Selection told the House that the Committee had been ready to meet earlier
that week, but had been advised by the Government that there was no business
for it to transact.
Conflict of interest
In September 2008 Vaz faced pressure to
explain why he failed to declare an interest when he intervened in an
official investigation into the business dealings of a close friend,
solicitor Shahrokh Mireskandari, who has played a role in several
racial discrimination cases against the
Metropolitan Police, and who was representing Assistant Commissioner
Tarique Ghaffur in his racial discrimination case against
Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir
Ian Blair.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority began an investigation into Mireskandari's legal firm, Dean and Dean, in January 2008 after a number of complaints about its conduct. Vaz wrote a joint letter with fellow Labour MP Virendra Sharma to the authority's chief executive, Anthony Townsend, in February 2008 on official House of Commons stationery. He cited a complaint he had received from Mireskandari and alleged "discriminatory conduct" in its investigation into Dean and Dean. The Authority was forced to set up an independent working party to look into whether it had disproportionately targeted non-white lawyers for investigation.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable said that Vaz should make a public statement to clear up his role in the affair. "It is quite unreasonable that an independent regulator should have been undermined in this way. I would hope that the chairman of the home affairs select committee will give a full public statement."[24]
28 day query
In July 2007 Vaz was appointed chairman of
the
Home Affairs Select Committee. The appointment caused an outcry at the
time since select committee members are usually proposed by the committee of
selection, but Vaz was the only nomination made by Commons leader
Harriet Harman.
In September 2008 Vaz came under pressure when it was revealed that he had sought the private views of Prime Minister Gordon Brown in connection with the Committee's independent report into government plans to extend the detention of terror suspects beyond 28 days. The Guardian reported that emails suggested that Vaz had secretly contacted the Prime Minister about the committee's draft report and proposed a meeting because "we need to get his [Brown's] suggestions". An email was sent in November 2007 to Ian Austin, Gordon Brown's parliamentary private secretary, and copied to Fiona Gordon, at the time Brown's political adviser. Another leaked email showed that Vaz had also sent extracts of the committee's draft report to the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, for his comments; according to Parliament's standing orders, the chairman of the Select Committee cannot take evidence from a witness without at least two other committee members being present.
The disclosure caused concern both among committee members and civil liberties campaigners, as the Select Committee's reports are supposed to be compiled independently of government influence. Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, compared it to a judge deciding a case privately emailing one of the parties to seek their suggestions.
Vaz denied that he invited Brown to contribute, except as a witness to the committee.[25]
Parliamentary
Expenses Scandal
Mr. Vaz was implicated in the Parliamentary
Expenses Scandal. As reported by the
Daily Telegraph, Vaz claimed £75,000 in expenses for a second home just
12 miles from his main home[26].
His main home is declared to be in the North-west London suburb of
Stanmore,
and was purchased with his wife Maria for £1.15 million in 2005, and is
around 40 minutes from Westminster by Tube, raising questions as to whether
billing for a second home (a £545,000 Westminster flat) was essential
for his work as an MP. He also flipped property: claiming for the
Westminster flat's service charge and council tax (£2,073, and £1,022), then
renting this flat out, switching his second home to a house in his Leicester
East constituency, fitting it with around £16,000 of furniture and soft
furnishings, as well as £600 month of un-receipted cleaning, service, and
repair bills, then flipping back to the Westminster flat again, allowing
mortgage interest to be claimed on the flat once more
UNQUOTE
Lawyer, Islamic, sound on Rushdie, light fingers, mouthy, got away with it too often.
Vaz And Corruption - A Nigerian Comments
QUOTE
Last year, a Telegraph's investigation
called
The Expenses Files, into how politicians from Gordon Brown's Cabinet to
backbenchers of all parties exploited the system of parliamentary allowances
to subsidise their lifestyles and multiple homes claimed about 21 casualties........
In February 2002, Yemen born, Keith Vaz
MP, the former Europe Minister was rebuked by a powerful committee of MPs
for "recklessly" making an untrue and damaging allegation to the
police against a witness who made a complaint against him. He had
consistently enjoyed the support of Tony Blair, and was
found guilty of
"contempt"
of the Commons by "wrongfully interfering with the House's
investigative process." Mr. Vaz was also rebuked for failing to answer
MPs' questions about his business affairs, and misleading the inquiry with
inaccurate information. Today, he is
the Chairman of the Committee charged with the task of examining the
expenditure, administration, and policy of the Home Office and public
bodies. So you see, Parliament isn't corrupt, just mediocre by
Steve Richards is an excellent reference and insight into British
politics today.
UNQUOTE
Nigerians are honest people, honest about corruption, experts in
corruption. They do not need involved explanations of
Vaz or
Sarosh Zaiwalla. They know that crime is tax free.
Vaz Claims That He Did Not Take A Bung From Sarosh Zaiwallah
Zaiwalla has a track record too.
Vaz And
The Unanswered Questions
The
Grauniad
does not quite say that he is a lying crook but it seems clear enough that they think just
that. Who am I to argue with the wonderful people who were there on the day?
Perhaps he does not have an unwholesome interest in boys.
Keith Vaz is Not a Fit and Proper Person for Parliament's Justice Committee
- Vaz is a Pakistani thief
QUOTE
Guido has been following the shenanigans of
Keith Vaz for over a
decade. It is Guido’s considered opinion that he is not a fit and proper
person to be on the Justice Select Committee – for which he is standing.
This has nothing to do with his sexuality.
He is just plain dishonest.
Many will say that the dishonesty in his private life is a matter for him and his wife. Putting the prostitutes and the question of attempting to procure illegal drugs aside, if we must, there is the fact that as slippery as Vaz is, he has still managed to get caught for the following;
- He was suspended from parliament for making false allegations against the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.
- It was found that he had given false information to the Standards and Privileges Committee and Elizabeth Filkin about his financial relationship to the Hinduja brothers.
- Failing to register his paid employment at the Leicester Law Centre when he first entered parliament in 1987.
- Failing to register a donation from the Caparo group in 1993.
- Failing to register complimentary hospitality and hotel rooms supplied by Indian tycoon Joginder Sanger which he used for encounters with young men in 2013 and 2014.
- He denied receiving cash from from a solicitor, Sarosh Zaiwalla. He was later found to have received £4,500 and censured as a result.
- He has previously been found in Contempt of the House.
- He lobbied against the extradition of the Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi to France when he was in the pay of one of his companies.
- He was described by then MP Patrick Mercer, as “a crook of the first order”, when recruiting him to his TV sting exposé inspired APPG. Mercer had chosen to recruit him because he said he had “never met an operator like him… I mean it’s not always completely ethical, but it’s stunning, he is an operator”.
- Despite living just 45 minutes from Westminster Vaz claimed expenses for a Westminster flat.
- Prostitutes were paid off by an employee of Vaz’s charity.
- For some reason Leicestershire police, despite considering a range of possible offences including; wasteful employment of the police, attempting to pervert the course of justice and road traffic offences, have failed to prosecute him. Ordinary police officers felt he was untouchable by virtue of his position of influence on the Home Affairs Committee. Putting him on the Justice Committee risks repeating that error of judgement.
The Justice Select Committee will soon be considering the government’s proposals for “Unexplained Wealth Orders”, new asset confiscation powers and powers to designate persons of “significant money laundering concern”. Vaz has over the last 16 years declared little in outside earnings yet somehow has amassed a £4 million property portfolio. In 2012 Scotland Yard was reportedly investigating hundreds of thousands held in various accounts controlled by Vaz. An understated Scotland Yard report recorded “There are numerous unexplained payments into the accounts and large transfers between accounts that require further investigation” and that “the level of funds received … are of a suspicious nature”. Quite.
How can Vaz sit on a committee that is going to consider legislation that
will surely apply to him? Andrew Bridgen intends to object to the
appointment of Keith Vaz to the Justice Select Committee – the first such
objection this century. Unless Vaz’s allies talk it out this will result in
a division tonight and a vote on the propriety of Vaz sitting on a powerful
legislative body. It will only bring shame
to parliament if this crook is elected to the the Justice Committee…
UNQUOTE
Vaz is not just a Pakistani thief; he is a known thief. That is what
Patrick Mercer, another corrupt MP chose to say about his peculiar
friend. See e.g.
Patrick Mercer made one of worst ever breaches of rules, watchdog finds.
Vaz Led Islamic March Against Satanic Verses [ 11 June 2006 ]
QUOTE
On the contrary, they seemed to be not only accepted but even endorsed by
certain members of the British establishment. Far from universal
condemnation of this murderous expression of religious fanaticism, various
people used their public position to jump prematurely upon Rushdie's grave.
Eminent historian Lord Dacre said he 'would not shed a tear if some British
Muslims, deploring Mr Rushdie's manners, were to waylay him in a dark street
and seek to improve them'. In Leicester, Labour MP Keith Vaz led a
3,000-strong demonstration intent on burning an effigy of Rushdie and
carried a banner showing Rushdie's head, complete with horns and fangs,
superimposed on a dog.
UNQUOTE
Islamic or just a chancer on the make?
PS This was written by Melanie
Philips, a gobby Jew.
Vaz Took
£500 Thousand In Bribes Or
Not As The Case May Be [
4 October 2012 ]
QUOTE
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen writes to
Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to demand an inquiry and says Mr.
Vaz should to stand down as chairman of the Home Affairs Select
Committee
Mr. Vaz denies any wrongdoing and says
the money is from property deals
Keith Vaz could face a Commons investigation over the revelation that he held almost £500,000 in mystery bank accounts. Scotland Yard detectives found the money during a secret investigation and regarded it as being of a ‘suspicious nature’....... As chairman of the home affairs select committee, Mr. Vaz holds police to account on operational matters and was scathing in his criticism of Scotland Yard over the phone hacking affair..... In 2000, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards launched an inquiry into Mr. Vaz over allegations he received money from businessmen in his Leicester constituency. The following year he was investigated for allegedly helping the billionaire Indian Hinduja brothers to obtain British passports........ In 2002 he was suspended from the House of Commons after falsely claiming a former policewoman, a friend of Mrs. Vaz’s former personal assistant, had made intimidating phone call to his mother.
In further controversy it emerged he helped Nadhmi Auchi, an Anglo-Iraqi billionaire, in trying to avoid extradition to France.
Despite his reputation having been seemingly tarnished, he bounced back and was appointed chairman of the home affairs select committee in 2007......... Four months ago one of Mr. Vaz’s former friends was booted out of the legal profession and ordered to pay £1.4million in costs.
Shahrokh Mireskandari, 51, had faked his
legal qualifications and hid his criminal convictions while representing
celebrity clients..
UNQUOTE
How does a crooked Pakistani get away with it? By having a face
that fits and enough criminal friends in high places. Such is life for the
Asian Mafia.