The Keith Vaz rent boy scandal escalated this evening after Tory backbencher Andrew Bridgen wrote to Britain’s most senior police officer seeking an investigation into his conduct.
In a letter seen by Heat Street Bridgen, whose constituency is close to Vaz’s in Leicestershire, asked Met commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe to check claims broken by the Sunday Mirror surrounding his liaison with two Eastern European male prostitutes in August. He has also asked Hogan Howe to investigate claims that Vaz is or has been under investigation by Leicestershire Police over matters unrelated to the weekend’s revelations.
In his letter, Bridgen writes: “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.”
Separately, Bridgen has also written to the parliamentary standards commissioner, Kathryn Hudson, this afternoon asking her to investigate Vaz over a potential conflict of interests in view of his role as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee.
In his letter to Hudson, Bridgen states: “I believe these alleged activities are a clear conflict of interest given his role as Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee where Mr Vaz has conducted inquiries into both the use of Class A drugs and prostitution. He also regularly interviews senior Police Officers and Senior Home Office Civil servants regarding laws which he appears to condone the breaking of. Clearly it is essential for transparency and public faith in Parliament for Mr Vaz to have no undisclosed conflicts of interest in the performance of his duties. I should therefore be grateful if you would conduct an investigation into the serious questions raised by Mr Vaz’s conduct and determine whether his actions constitute a breach of the Code of Conduct for members of Parliament. “
Finally, Bridgen has written to the chief executive of the Charity Commission, Paula Sussex, seeking an investigation into allegations Vaz used funds from his diabetes charity, Silver Star, to pay the male escorts.
Bridgen writes to Sussex: “It was stated that ‘the Sunday Mirror saw statements that showed two cash deposits of £150 each were paid into an account after details were texted to the MP.’ ‘On one of the statements a man linked to Silver Star – a diabetes charity set up by Mr Vaz in 2007 after he learned he had Type 2 diabetes – was named. The Sunday Mirror reported that the first payment was made on August 5 with the reference “Painting”. There is no suggestion the man knew the real purpose of the payment.’ With this in mind, I believe the suggestion that Keith Vaz may have used charitable funds to pay escorts for sex should be urgently investigated.”
Earlier today Vaz’s solicitors, Howard Kennedy, wrote to Bridgen threatening to sue him for allegedly “spreading false and highly defamatory scuttlebutt” about Vaz.
If this was intended to deter Bridgen, it clearly failed to do so.
Update: 9 September
Lawyers for Silver Star wish to make it clear that the payments are not alleged to have been made by the charity and that there is no suggestion that the charity’s money was involved. The charity also wishes to make it known that it has evidence from its bank statements that no such payment was made by it.
