Keith Vaz faces inquiries by police and parliament over ‘suspicious’ cash movements through accounts

A SENIOR Labour MP is facing parliamentary and police investigations amid allegations that he received £500,000 in suspicious payments between 1997 and 2001.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, who has led parliamentary inquiries into the police and phone hacking, is now under scrutiny for the period he was a minister in Tony Blair’s government.

A Scotland Yard investigation found “significant amounts of cash” which were said to have been of a “suspicious nature”, according to reports yesterday.

The investigation centres on seven bank accounts held by Mr Vaz and his wife, Maria Fernandes. Police documents reportedly show that before the 1997 election, £13,908 was paid into the HSBC accounts and £9,247 taken out.

But then in 1997, it is claimed, the amounts apparently rose to £136,566 paid in and £130,427 taken out; rising again in 1998 to £187,103 paid in, including nearly £29,000 in cash, and £191,999 taken out.

According to the report, the following year, £120,394 was deposited and £123,991 withdrawn but in 2000, when the first parliamentary investigation into Mr Vaz’s conduct began, the deposits fell to £8,410.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said Mr Vaz should stand down from the committee he chairs until the matter has been fully investigated by the parliamentary authorities. He has also wrote to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner demanding an investigation into the payments.

In a statement Mr Vaz said: “These matters relate to two parliamentary inquiries which began in 1999 and concluded in 2003.

“My finances were for a period of three years the subject of extensive examination. I have had no outside interests.”