Keith Vaz

Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz (born 26 November 1956) is a British politician who served as the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987 to 2019. He is the UK Parliament's longest-serving British Asian MP. Vaz served as the Minister for Europe between October 1999 and June 2001. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in June 2006. He was Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee from July 2007, but resigned from this role on 6 September 2016 after the Sunday Mirror revealed he had engaged in unprotected sexual activity with male sex workers and had said he would pay for cocaine if they wished to use it. At the end of October 2016, Vaz was appointed to the Justice Select Committee; a parliamentary vote to block his appointment was defeated. On 10 November 2019, he said in a statement he would not be standing for re-election at the general election the following month. He stood in the 2024 United Kingdom general election in Leicester East for the One Leicester party. He was consequently expelled from the Labour Party. He failed in his election bid, finishing fifth with 3,681 votes.