Keith Vaz implicated in sex scandal in UK

Keith Vaz, Britain’s longest serving Indian-origin MP, was on Sunday embroiled in a sex scandal after a newspaper claimed he had paid for male prostitutes.

The Labour MP from Leicester since 1987, who is a married father of two, paid for men to visit him one evening last month at a flat he owns in London, the ‘Sunday Mirror’ claimed.

The 59-year-old Goan-origin MP has since announced he will be stepping aside as chair of the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, which he has headed for the past 10 years.

“I am genuinely sorry for the hurt and distress that has been caused by my actions, in particular to my wife and children. I will be informing the Committee on Tuesday of my intention to stand aside from chairing the sessions of the Committee with immediate effect,”   he said in a statement reported by ‘Sky News’.

It is understood that Vaz has not resigned completely but temporarily as he speaks to his lawyer and other members of the committee.

The committee is currently examining prostitution in the UK and had issued a report recently saying that soliciting by sex workers should be decriminalised. Vaz allegedly paid for sex with two male prostitutes and offered to pay for a class A or banned drug, according to the newspaper report, which is accompanied by a video.  It is alleged the MP had two meetings with Eastern European origin escorts, including a 90-minute meeting on August 27.