Keith Vaz under pressure to resign as chair of influential Commons committee

credit - Parliament TV

SENIOR Labour MP Keith Vaz is under pressure to down as chairman of the influential Commons Home Affairs Select Committee following allegations published in the media that he paid for the services of male escorts.

A media report claimed the married father-of-two and former government minister paid for the men to visit him one evening last month at a flat he owns in London.

However, Vaz, who is the longstanding chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee which monitors crime and drugs policy, said he was referring the claims to his solicitor and would be seeking advice.

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A number of media reports suggested that Vaz was stepping down as Home Affairs Select Committee chairman.

However, he has not confirmed this, saying he will tell the committee his plans first tomorrow.

A minister for Europe in Tony Blair's first Labour government, and an MP for nearly 30 years, Vaz is a high profile figure at Westminster and in the media.

Vaz is also seen as one of the senior voices on justice and policing-related issues as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee - a post he has held since 2007.

However, the Leicester East MP said he would tomorrow confirm his status as head of the committee, which is is currently probing a review of prostitution laws.

In a statement, Vaz said: "It is deeply disturbing that a national newspaper should have paid individuals to have acted in this way.

"I have referred these allegations to my solicitor Mark Stephens of Howard Kennedy who will consider them carefully and advise me accordingly."

He also described it as a "privilege" to be the chairman of the select committee, which monitors crime and drugs policy, for the past nine years.

"I will of course inform committee members first of my plans when we meet on Tuesday.

“My decision has been based entirely on what is in the best interests of the committee."

Conservative former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said it was right for Vaz to temporarily step aside.

"Keith Vaz, as I understand it, has said he will stand aside from the chairmanship and, given the areas for which the committee is responsible, that does seem to me to be a sensible course of action."