Vaz was very close to Janner and in parliament described powerful paedophile evidence against Janner as a “wicked and cowardly attack.” He lost a ministerial position for corrupt handling of billionaire passport applications.
But what he did in private with consenting adults is his own business, and there is a bad tendency to conflate homosexuality with paedophilia in much social media comment today. Nor is he a hypocrite – had he been an opponent of prostitution the story would have public interest in exposing hypocrisy. But as he supports liberalisation he is not a hypocrite, and as entitled to express his view on prostitution in parliament as he is his view on supermarkets, which he also uses.
(It has been pointed out to me that he is a hypocrite in that he has claimed in parliament not to know what poppers are. I accept this correction).
I dislike Vaz very much, have for years, for his politics and practice in public office. But not for his private life which there was no real public interest in revealing today. It is yet more prurient tittle tattle from our pathetic media. The most disgraceful thing in today’s story is that he keeps his whisky in the fridge, which is well nigh unforgiveable.
Whenever anyone in or even close to public office is leaving themselves wide open to blackmail, then it IS in the public interest to know.
what evidence he was open to blackmail?
I’m not saying he was being blackmailed…but that he was open to blackmail. A married man with children, paying rent boys for sex is wide open to blackmail.
I just feel very sorry for his wife, although she may have realised her husband was this way.
But, overall, I do agree
I am always impressed by your capacity to draw out strictly rational points from any issue, Craig. I agree it is vital to be scrupulously fair and without prejudice, especially regarding those we may dislike for any reason.
I have grave concerns about any form of prostitution, involving vulnerable or exploited individuals. I know others may argue these sex workers have autonomy and are exercising power. However, if it is true that many so called ‘rent boys’ identify themselves as such, only because they have been taken from our care system, abused by paedophiles, and are rendered powerless to know themselves in any other way, is there not a responsibility, especially on the part of a public figure, to avoid any connection with such an industry?
Tight as a tick this morning my dear? Relax and chill and use those sharp ears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bu0H_OCFHI
above brilliant for the morning, and here a racy version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v29Rvh2Cxzs
And if that is too oriental for your taste, reflect timely on Come September:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te7I_ta7Vzc
btw, how are April Showers, May Day, Flaming June and Hot August Night? 🙂
If he uses prostitutes he should declare that if sitting on a Select Committee dealing with the issue.
He voted for the invasion of Iraq – that’s the real and unmentioned scandal. Such people should not be continuing in Parliament as if nothing happened. If this scandal ends his career – good. It should have been the other one.
“He voted for the invasion of Iraq – that’s the real and unmentioned scandal.”
Er, no. It is not a “scandal” for an elected representative to vote either way on an issue. It is just your opinion that he should not have voted the way he did.
Teflon Vaz helped vote Teflon Tone in a situation where, to quote NewsWeek:
“The White House, the Pentagon and . . . the State Department had no idea what they were doing. Incompetence permeates the tale, with . . .officials arrogantly waving aside warnings and pleas for better planning”
[this]”contributed mightily to the creation of ISIS – the Islamic State extremist group”
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/07/29/chilcot-report-iraq-george-bush-tony-blair-481506.html
Sorry, what whining was that about ‘opinion’ are you that PRO-Isis? Try taking your meds, if a machine needs meds!
To his credit, he voted against replacement of the Trident nuclear status symbol:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/19/trident-how-your-mp-voted
Right… but he voted to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and plunge the middle east into the abyss. Perhaps because it favoured his career crawl. That’s not a saving grace.
Presumably you would be content with his present conduct had he voted against the Iraq War? Sorry, but we should not conduct witch hunts against MPs based upon their voting records and whether Je believes they did the right thing or not.
And Vaz did not “vote to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis”. He voted for military action against the Iraqi regime. Whether that action went on to result in 50 or 500,000 deaths is irrelevant to what he was voting on at the time. Not to mention that your vague guess of “hundreds of thousands” is dubious to say the least.
You can’t really get away with that falsehood-it was highly predictable that there would be a blood bath.Voting in favour of the Iraq war was not done by naive ingenues as indeed voting against was not by ignorant people.There is no doubt that those in favour weighed it up in such a way that they were pretty indifferent to the fate of the ordinary Iraqis .
I am not actually a pacifist / no war at any price-but only a fool could have been ‘unknowing’ that there was a connection between military action and death of innocents.
By the way what do you think of the ‘Turkey shoot’ bombing of the helpless Iraqi military at the end of the first gulf war. These were conscripts mainly, without leaders/officers-(they had skedaddled to safer places) and posed no threat to the bombers and were exposed to an overwhelmingly more powerful forces. Seems like a war crime to me.
The “Highway of Death” was clearly a war crime, with the Yanks keen to test their new fuel-air ordinance weapons. Did wonders for sales, as did the “smart bomb” demonstrations. Iraq has been the demonstration ground for a while now.
Mind you, our bombing of Fallujah’s hospital – quite deliberately – was itself a most clear war crime during our second Iraq war. There is nothing new there. Wars ginned up on the basis of lies, a hideous loss of life, war crimes committed, and absolutely no accountability for it at all at any level.
He should resign right away no doubt about it his past record speaks for it selfe in any other job he would have been sacked long ago but the guilty protect their own no honest person has any respect left for parliament
It’s probably old fashioned, I know, but if you’re going to moralise incessantly at public expense, at least keep your personal immorality out of the areas you’re moralising about…oh, and if you have to step down, do it properly. Not until it all blows over, but with an humble and a contrite heart, acknowledging you’re unfit for the office and have no plans to return. Or better yet, use the mess Webley.
I completely agree with Craig’s comment that ‘what he did in private with consenting adults is his own business, and there is a bad tendency to conflate homosexuality with paedophilia in much social media comment today.’
It is also unfortunate that his wife and children have had to learn about his ‘secret life’ via the Mirror’s prurient tabloid sensationalism.
However one’s inner conspiracist does wonder if there is ‘more to this’ given-
1. the imminence of the conference season (where Vaz always makes a splash at Labour’s ‘diversity ball’)
2. the fact that the Mirror is usually a rock solid Labour supporting paper
3. the fact that Vaz’s constituency is next door to the one Greville Janner represented
and 4. the fact that allegedly more reputable journalists were tasked with investigating ‘serious sex allegations’ ( which I assume means sexual conduct of dubious legality) against Vaz a year ago, but that nothing was eventually broadcost-
http://order-order.com/2016/09/05/bbc-investigated-vaz-last-year/
maybe it has more to do with his stance against the media practices – leveson
‘Married Labour MP Keith Vaz, Male prostitutes and Elm Guest House EXCLUSIVE’:
http://breakingdownthnews.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/married-labour-mp-keith-vaz-male.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+$%7Bbreakingdownthenews%7D+($%7BBDTN%7D)
Is this the ‘news’ site that told you Boris was behind the Nice attacks?
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/07/29/chilcot-report-iraq-george-bush-tony-blair-481506.html
[this]”contributed mightily to the creation of ISIS – the Islamic State extremist group”
And more from the same ‘successful’ team:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/03/dark-prisoners-cia-torture-programme-160326051331796.html
another ‘news’ site, that mentions prisoner #24
It’s hard to believe he’s never heard of Karl Popper
oh dear!
Ah but more importantly does Vaz know, Tom Popper or Janie Popper, or Mrs Popper, or any of their penguins. ?
Staying on the subject of dysfunctional Westminster MP’s, Theresa May has admitted that Brexit, will see difficult times ahead for the dis-United Kingdom. The unelected PM, then went on to say, Brexit would not be plain sailing.
To futher compound, May’s Tory party’s complete and utter incompetents, over the run up to, and the handling of Brexit. US president Barack Obama said the US would prioritise trade negotiations with the EU, and Pacific nations over that of the dis-United Kingdom.
Nicola Sturgeon has come out and berated, the shambolic handling of Brexit, and Westminster’s lack of clarity surrounding the economic interests of not only Scotland, but Wales and NI.
To think Adam Tomkins, has the chutzpah, to defend, the Tories and Brexit, is beyond any sane persons reasoning.
http://www.thenational.scot/politics/nicola-sturgeon-theresa-mays-tough-times-admission-proves-tories-have-put-scotlands-economic-interests-on-the-line.21998
” It is not a “scandal” for an elected representative to vote either way on an issue.
Your amorality is showing, Anon 1.
It is most certainly scandalous for an elected representative to betray his constituents by backing a campaign of calculated deceit and fraud. And that is what MPs voting for the Iraq war did.
Their crime is multiplied by the number of those that they are misrepresenting. It is hard to think of an act more scandalous than approving the ultimate crime of a war of aggression.
And yet Vaz was returned as MP for Leicester East in 2005, 2010 and 2015. In 2005 he held one of the few Labour seats that gained votes.
It is not a “scandal” that an elected representative voted in a way Bevin disapproves of. Had he “betrayed” his constituents, they would have voted him out, rather than returning him with an increased majority.
More on dysfunctional Westminster MP’s, who think they know what’s best for Scotland, they don’t.
Angela Leadsom, remember her? Who said butterflies could replace sheep on Scottish hills, has been appointed minister for the Department of Food and Rural Affairs, (no it’s not April Fools day). Leadsom is well documented on her removal of direct support for farmers, she was also a most ardent Brexiteer, first Boris as Foreign Secretary, now Leadsom, as minister for Defra.
Scotland must start kicking in the water, to pull away from the HMS Westminster, and move out of it’s Titanic like suction, or it will also be pulled into the economic abyss.
http://www.thenational.scot/politics/snp-fury-as-defra-appoints-brexiteer-andrea-leadsom-to-campaign-on-food-promotion.21999
More on the machinations of the three ringed circus, known as Westminster.
It has been reported that the taxpayers of the dis-United Kingdom, may have to pick up a whopping £6 billion bill, if China decides to pull out of the “white elephant” project known as Hinckley Point nuclear power station.
£6 billion, and that’s before any energy is produced, wow! The incompetents of Westminster knows no bounds.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/snp-blast-tories-over-6-billion-hinkley-point-disaster.21992
Why would any sovereign nation allow Westminster to handle any of its affairs? When it clearly can’t handle its own affairs, in a competent fashion.
Article 50 hasn’t been triggered yet, but already there’s a possibility of 140,000 job losses in the pipeline, if Japanese manufacturers in the dis-United Kingdom decide to pull the plug and move out.
In a letter to Downing St, the firms said;
“Japanese businesses with their European headquarters in the UK may decide to transfer their head-office function to Continental Europe if EU laws cease to be applicable in the UK after its withdrawal.”
Get ready for the economic exodus, as firms will want to be certain of maintaining links with EU customers. Is your job safe ?
Scottish independence could save thousands of jobs, and create thousands more, in the relocation of firms, to north of the border, that wish to remain in the EU.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37270372
I heard that every MP gets a birthday card from Vaz. They bear his photo on the front. Oleaginous. A creep.
Oleaginous. Nice word.
On Keith Vaz and fellow Leicester MP and lawyer Greville Janner, The Guardian reported on 4 December 1991:
‘The Solicitor-General last night rejected calls from MPs [of whom Mr Vaz was one] from all sides of the Commons for a review of the law of contempt of court to prevent allegations against innocent third parties such as those made against the MP Greville Janner in the Frank Beck case.
‘Sir Nicholas Lyell angered MPs with his sterling defence of the freedom of the press and the rights of a defendant to a fair trial.
‘“I suggest we interfere with this at our genuine peril,” he said, acknowledging the ordeal Mr Janner had been through. The ultimate principle had to be that of open justice.
‘Mr Janner, Labour MP for Leicester West, again rejected allegations made against him during the child abuse trail, saying they were “disgraceful, contemptible and totally untrue”.
‘His family were in the public gallery to hear MPs denounce the claims made by Mr Beck, the former head of three children’s homes who
was sentenced to five life sentences last Friday for sexual assaults on inmates in his care.
‘MPs expressed admiration for Mr Janner’s courage and urged a change in the law.
‘Patrick Cormack, Tory MP for Staffordshire South, said such a change would “prevent this sort of vile calumny being perpetrated again”.
‘Others expressed concern for those who did not have recourse to Parliament to clear their names, and criticised the press for the way the trial was reported.’
Party popping Vazeline seems quite cuddly compared to Theresa *psycho* May…
http://truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/theresa-may-bans-ministers-talking-media/
Both the USA and UK are now in a state of full-blown fascism; but hey, they came first and second respectively in the Olympic medal table, so everything must be ok…
So Theresa May has rejected the points based immigration system, (similar to Australia’s) that was a corner stone of the Brexiteers campaign. This will just be the beginning of the backsliding, that will see the dis-United Kingdom become a very difficult place to move to.
I say that in light of May’s comment at the G20 in China, when she said;
“A points-based system does not give you that control.” With regards to EU citizens moving to the dis-United Kingdom.
RoS
Talk of a points based system in relation to EU migration was always so much piss and wind in my view (and I voted out); it always to me seemed more relevant to non EU migration eg in relation to spouses and other relatives, where it would make sense to give more ‘points’ to applicants with a good command of English (or, in the interests of UK solidarity, Welsh of Scottish Gaelic- the former might apply to half a dozen prospective Patagonian immigrants)
For immigrants from the EEA a simple numbers cap HAS been approved in the case of Lichtenstein, so David Davis & co should argue that, as the principle has been breached, a similar cap in relation to EEA migration into the UK cannot be ‘off the table’ in the Brexit negotiations. Probably the best way to do this would be via a generous annual quota of new NI numbers (80.000- 100.000 initially ?) for citizens of EEA states, with preference given to those with skills or work experience in high demand and a corresponding low supply from the resident work force. Once the annual quota is used up no further NI numbers would be issued to EEA immigrants for that year.
Resident Dissident
September 4, 2016 at 21:00
Off topic but on theme for this blog from the wonderful Nick Cohen
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/09/vlad-corrupter-crisis-left/?_ga=1.168425895.723981225.1470170298
…………………………………………………………………………
Nick Cohen is a terrible columnist in my view: a weasel that twists and turns the narrative to suit his unprofessional biased writings.
His arguments are eristic – his aim is to “win” the argument without regard to facts.
I see rather more arguments in Nick Cohen’s article than your response.
“It has been pointed out to me that he is a hypocrite in that he has claimed in parliament not to know what poppers are. I accept this correction.”
To give him the benefit of the doubt, that was presumably prior to this recording. Maybe he found out about them from the debates in parliament.
I certainly hadn’t been aware of them prior to them coming up during the “ban everything” legislation – I had heard the name, but didn’t know what they actually were, or why they were used.
He obviously knew nothing about them ,that’s why he asked one of his male hookers to bring some.
he may not have known, and then when informed about them he knew. we dont know if he did know about them when the question was asked.
In 1982, early in his political career and before he was an MP, Keith Vaz was Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Richmond & Barnes, as well as being Solicitor for Richmond Council.
Elm Guest House on Rocks Lane, Barnes, was at the centre of a paedophile ring in 1982. Boys from Richmond Council-run care homes such as Grafton Close were supplied to Elm Guest House to be abused by VIPs.
Vaz was also a fundraiser for the notorious Derek Slade’s child abuse charity.
Vaz was mentored by Lord Janner and killed a 90’s probe in Janner’s child raping.
Vaz’ Home Affairs Committee published child rape victims names leading to them getting death threats. https://www.rt.com/uk/227911-death-threat-abuse-victims/
Keith Vaz was Senior Solicitor to London Borough of Islington home of the largest State owned child abuse network.
all circumstantial. any fact – evidence of wrongdoing ?
Circumstantial is evidence. What are you some kind of coincidence theorist?
on its own its useless. anything of substance or just smears?
Keith Vaz is beyond the pale.
BBC
He was Britain’s Minister for Europe under Tony Blair and said the vote to leave the EU was a “catastrophe”
Say no more, he worked for the Blair Machine and is a supporter of staying in Europe.
What a bloody rotter.
A true believer in freedom of movement.
Now here’s a somewhat funny take on the slime-ball:
“Keith Vaz and the case for the defence (or perhaps not): RICHARD LITTLEJOHN says disgraced MP has been a Stalin
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3775314/Keith-Vaz-case-defence-not.html#ixzz4JSrVnW5L
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
cant wait for all the media to come clean with respect to their use of drugs, prostitutes and a declaration of their sexuality .. and then the rest of mp’s.
so it remains why now and at whose behest.
After her resignation Dame Lowell was asked to go before the Home Affairs Select Committee to explain her departure.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3775595/Government-s-child-sex-abuse-inquiry-BIG-uncover-truth-former-chair-warns.html#ixzz4JTAueZ8j
Imagine reporting to Keith Cushions Vaz on how the child sex investigation is (not) going,
how did Keith keep a “straight” face?
MPs’ EXPENSES: Keith Vaz, the London pad and the silk cushions
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1180237/MPs-EXPENSES-Keith-Vaz-London-pad-silk-cushions.html#ixzz4JTGzPu9S
During the year Mr Vaz made claims of about £16,000 relating to the house, including more than £480 on 22 cushions,
17 of them silk, from John Lewis; £2,614 for a pair of John Lewis leather armchairs and an accompanying foot stool; £1,000 on a dining table and leather chairs; £750 on carpets; and £150 on a lamp and lampshade.
Commons guidelines said MPs should ‘avoid purchases which could be seen as extravagant or luxurious’.
So were the silk cushions for him to Prounce about with his “friends”?
A fine thing, at public expense NOT.
BREAKING
Keith Cushions Vaz to be “urged” to stand down from home affairs committee
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37283328
It follows newspaper claims he paid for the services of two male sex workers.
He should be answering questions with the police, in a police station, not faffing about being “urged” to stand aside.
He is a truly disgusting individual.
I expect Keith knows the dirt on many other people in public life.
Expect him to be found swinging.
“He should be answering questions with the police, in a police station”
Not aware that he’s done anything illegal.
Keith Vaz should be “asked” to go before his own committee to answer questions on Janner,
and any other appropriate questions.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/707545/Keith-Vaz-carries-on-business-usual-despite-rent-boy-scandal
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen has said he will write to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards regarding Mr Vaz’s conduct.
Today, the backbencher received a letter from law firm Howard Kennedy accusing him of “maliciously spreading false and highly defamatory scuttlebutt” about Mr Vaz.
So does Keith Vaz think he is above the law?
The filthy swine
has now handed in his notice
Keith Vaz is facing fresh questions about his wealth after it emerged he pays staff out of his own pocket and put his kids through private school.
Keith Vaz M.P.
the Labour grandee has been on the Privy Council since June 2006,
meanwhile building up a £4million property empire with his wife, despite the couple seemingly having a relatively modest income?
The staffing arrangement was revealed in response to a consultation by the MP pay and expenses watchdog earlier this year.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3775763/EXC-DOES-Keith-s-money-come-Labour-grandee-Vaz-complained-using-MP-salary-pay-staff.html#ixzz4JZX4M9EA
It does make you wonder how these busy M.P.’s have time to accumulate such immense wealth
Scotland Yard will ‘assess’ whether Keith Vaz broke the law over rent boys scandal
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3781839/Scotland-Yard-assess-Keith-Vaz-broke-law-rent-boys-scandal.html#ixzz4JmLvNXcb
Scotland Yard has announced it will ‘assess’ whether any criminal offences were committed by Keith Vaz after allegations he paid for rent boys.
The Labour MP was forced to resign from his high profile job as chair of the Home Affairs Committee this week after a Sunday newspaper published footage of Mr Vaz allegedly paying boys for sex and offering to buy drugs.
He now faces a battle to cling on to his position on Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, while some have called on him to quit as MP for Leicester East.
I expect a lot more filth, will come out, soon.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen demanded a police investigation into his neighbouring MP Keith Vaz in a letter to the Met. He said:
Dear Sir Bernard,
I write to you following the recent allegations in the Sunday Mirror dated 4th September 2016 that Keith Vaz paid escorts for sex in his flat in Edgware. The report and associated video suggests a conspiracy to supply a controlled substance. I would also question whether Mr Vaz has breached ‘Misconduct in Public Office’ laws with what has been reported. I would urge you to consider examining the report and requesting a transcript from the Sunday Mirror of the incident to establish if there has been any breach of the law.
I also believe that Mr Vaz is or has been under investigation recently by Leicestershire Police and would urge you to contact the Chief Constable Simon Cole to assess whether there is any link between any of the potential offences.
Yours sincerely
Andrew Bridgen MP
This is quite interesting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bridgen
On 9 June 2011 false allegations of sexual assault were levelled against Bridgen, leading to his arrest in London by the Metropolitan Police and subsequent release on bail. A week later the allegations were retracted as untrue, and police said no further action would be taken.
In comments to the Daily Mail, Bridgen claimed the incident, and the false allegations “ruined his life”. He was divorced shortly after the incident. In January 2015 it emerged his accuser, Annabelle Fuller, a woman rumoured to be the ex-lover of UKIP leader Nigel Farage,
was interviewed under caution on suspicion of making false allegations against M.P. Bridgen.
Annabelle Fuller was reported to the police by a third-party who had been sent messages by Fuller about the incident, which led to Fuller’s arrest.
Yes this is quite interesting. Suggest you repeat it on the top thread.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Champion_(politician)
Perhaps the resigning/unresigning Sarah Deborah Champion M.P. for Rotherham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Champion_(politician)
could mentor Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz M.P. for Leicester East.
Sarah has studied Psychology and was employed as the Chief Executive of a children’s hospice in Rotherham.
Sarah Champion was appointed as Shadow Minister for Preventing Abuse by Jeremy Corbyn in September 2015.
Keith has been having some “relationship” problems and might benefit from some councelling?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/10/keith-vazs-wife-says-i-forgive-him/
The ( solicitor)wife of shamed M.P. Keith Vaz has said she will eventually forgive him for cheating on her with rent boys – although she admitted she felt like smashing crockery over his head.
Maria Fernandes said she had decided to give the high-profile former minister a second chance, but warned he needs to change
or “I’ll sling him out”.
Does the woman imagine he has only done this sort of thing once?
“Although I’m a lapsed Christian, there is still a Christian part of me that talks about forgiveness because you let go if you forgive. So from that point of view, yes, I’ve made the decision but how it will be done … that’s all to happen in the future.”
Ms Fernandes, a lawyer, said they would go to marriage guidance sessions and he would need a full health check after having unprotected sex.
She said she feared for Mr Vaz’s mental health: “He wanted to kill himself twice – once as Europe minister (when he was caught up in a scandal over passports) – and again now. He just wanted to die.”
And more involvement of M.P. Bridgen grassing on M.P. Vaz
John Bercow was last night accused of a ‘cover up’ over Keith Vaz after a Tory MP released letters written last year in which he raised concerns about Mr Vaz’s private life.
Andrew Bridgen wrote to the Speaker asking him to take ‘all appropriate action’ to ensure that Mr Vaz was suspended from his position as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Mr Bercow refused, and soon afterwards was pictured next to Mr Vaz watching a football match – which Mr Bridgen believes to be evidence of an ‘establishment cover-up’.
In Mr Bridgen’s letter, dated September 3, 2015, he said he felt ‘forced to write to you regarding a matter which I believe risks bringing the House of Commons and its offices into serious disrepute’.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3783581/John-Bercow-accused-cover-Tory-MP-called-Keith-Vaz-s-suspension-amid-concerns-private-life-ONE-YEAR-rent-boy-claims-surfaced.html#ixzz4JwYeYQ3F
After detailing his claims, Mr Bridgen said ‘these allegations… would be a most serious matter were they to be raised against any Member of the House, however given that the Member in question is the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee… only compounds my concerns’.
Mr Bridgen concluded in the letter, which has been seen by the Mail on Sunday: ‘I believe that in doing this, you would be ensuring that any investigation continues unhindered and also go some way to protect the reputation of Parliament’.
Mr Bercow wrote back five days later, saying: ‘I have no reason to possess, nor do I seek, any special knowledge when a member is being investigated in relation to allegations.’
Three weeks after Mr Bercow sent his letter, he was pictured with Mr Vaz in the directors’ box of Leicester City Football Club.
Mr Bridgen cites this as evidence that a friendship between the two men inhibited Mr Bercow from acting on his complaint. Mr Bridgen also wrote to Mr Vaz last December calling on him to step down from his Select Committee role.
Mr Vaz responded by saying: ‘Your letter is based on a completely false premise. I know of no ‘investigation’ by any other organisation of any kind into any allegations such as the ones contained in your letter. The suggestion you make is highly defamatory.’
Oh dear, it’s getting dirty.
For once I disagree with you as Vaz should have declared his interest as a punter before chairing the inquiry into prostitution. That – not his private life – is the real story. The report’s recommendations need to be examined in the light of his bias.