Keith Vaz yesterday sensationally resigned from one of Parliament’s most powerful jobs after allegedly paying for male escorts.
The veteran Labour MP quit as chairman of the influential Commons home affairs select committee. First elected in 1987 to Parliament, his departure is a dramatic fall from grace.
The Leicester East MP was one of the most high-profile committee chairmen with a reputation for tough questioning and hard-hitting reports. He stood down yesterday afternoon stating that the committee’s work must continue “without any distractions whatsoever”.
In a statement, he added: “I am genuinely sorry that recent events make it impossible for this to happen if I remain chair. The integrity of the select committee system matters to me. Those who hold others to account, must themselves be accountable.”
Vaz was the longest serving chairman of the committee, having been in the post for nine years, overseeing the publication of 120 reports, hearing evidence from ministers on 113 occasions and 1,379 witnesses.
But he announced yesterday afternoon his decision to stand aside immediately from committee business.
“After speaking to the House authorities, I will formally tender my resignation to the speaker so that it coincides with the timetable for the election of other committee chairs, such as the Brexit committee, culture, media and sport, and science and technology, so that the elections can take place together. This is my decision, and mine alone, and my first consideration has been the effect of recent events on my family.”
Vaz is claimed to have paid male escorts from eastern Europe for services at a flat he owns in north London, to have asked one to bring party drug poppers and to have offered to pay for cocaine, while stating he did not want to use it himself.
The committee is currently carrying out an inquiry into prostitution which immediately raised questions over a possible conflict of interest. 
The committee had been expected to meet yesterday afternoon at which Vaz was due to face calls from several members to resign or at least stand aside temporarily.
But he decided to go beforehand and recommended that Tim Loughton, the longest-serving Conservative MP on the committee, take over as interim chairman. He also thanked committee members for their “tremendous support” and clerks for their “amazing work”.
Vaz has survived a series of political controversies. He has publicly apologised to his wife and children for the “hurt and distress” caused by the allegations in a Sunday newspaper, and faced fresh claims yesterday about his reported liaisons with male prostitutes. Former solicitor Vaz is Britain’s longest-serving British Asian MP.