The Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP
Member of Parliament for Leicester East
Incumbent
Assumed office  11 June 1987
Preceded by	Peter Bruinvels
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Born	26 November 1956 (1956-11-26) (age 50)
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	Caius College, Cambridge
Religion	Roman Catholic

Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz, known simply as Keith Vaz (born November 26, 1956), is a British Labour party politician and Member of Parliament for Leicester East. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... If you hold the copyright to an image (e. ... Leicester East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... For the ecclesiastical office, see Incumbent (ecclesiastical). ... is the 162nd day of the year (163rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ... Peter Bruinvels is a British Conservative Party politician, born March 30, 1950. ... For the ecclesiastical office, see Incumbent (ecclesiastical). ... is the 330th day of the year (331st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. ... Full name Gonville and Caius College Motto - Named after Edmund Gonville & John Caius Previous names Gonville Hall (1348), Gonville & Caius (1557) Established 1348 Sister College Brasenose College Master Neil McKendrick Location Trinity St Undergraduates 468 Graduates 291 Homepage Boatclub Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, generally known as Caius (though pronounced... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... is the 330th day of the year (331st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A politician is an individual who is a formally recognized and active member of a government, or a person who influences the way a society is governed through an understanding of political power and group dynamics. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... Leicester East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...

Early life

Vaz, a Roman Catholic, was born in Aden in 1956, where his father (originally from Goa; hence the Portuguese surname) was a foreign correspondent for The Times of India. His family moved to Twickenham in England in 1965. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The Roman Catholic Church or Catholic... Port of Aden (around 1910). ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Two letter code GA Country India Capital — Administrative — Judicial1   — Panaji — Mumbai Location — Latitude — Longitude   — 15° N — 73° E Governor SC Jamir Chief Minister Prataph Sing Rane State language Konkani Liberation Day December 19, 1961 Statehood Day May 30, 1987 Population 1. ... The Times of India, often abbreviated as TOI, is one of Indias leading daily newspapers, owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. ... Twickenham is a suburb in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, south west London. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is God Save the Queen. See also Proposed English National Anthems. ... Year 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. ...

Educated at Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith, he subsequently studied law at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he received a B.A., class 2.1 (1979) and an MA (1987). At this time he was known as Nigel Vaz. Latymer Upper School, founded in 1624 by Edward Latymer, is a selective independent school in Hammersmith, west London, lying between King Street and the Thames. ... Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, approximately 5 miles (8km) west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames. ... Lady Justice or Justitia is a personification of the moral force that underlies the legal system (particularly in Western art). ... Full name Gonville and Caius College Motto Named after Edmund Gonville & John Caius Previous names Gonville Hall (1348), Gonville & Caius (1557) Established 1348, refounded 1557 Sister College(s) Brasenose College Master Sir Christopher Hum Location Trinity St Undergraduates 468 Postgraduates 291 Homepage Boatclub Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge is a... The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ...

Personal life

Vaz worked as a Solicitor for a number of years, including for Richmond Council (1982); as Senior solicitor for the London Borough of Islington (1982-1985); and as Solicitor at Highfields and Belgrave Law Centre in Leicester (1985-1987). A solicitor is a type of lawyer in many common law jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, but not the United States (in the United States the word has a quite different meaning—see below). ...

He and his wife Maria have two children.

Political career

Vaz first stood for parliament in 1983, when he contested the Conservative safe seat of Richmond and Barnes in the 1983 general election, which he failed to win. The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), the largest in terms of public membership, and the oldest political party in the United Kingdom. ... Richmond and Barnes was a parliamentary constituency in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, a south-western suburb of the capital. ... The UK general election, 1983 was held on June 9, 1983 and gave the Conservatives and Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945. ...

For the 1987 election he was chosen to stand for the seat of Leicester East, which had 16,000 British Asian voters. He won the election, defeating the right-wing Conservative candidate Peter Bruinvels, and became a popular constituency MP, the first Asian MP since Shapurji Saklatvala lost his seat in 1929. From 1987 to 1992 he was a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee. Margaret Thatcher David Steel Election 1987 Titles The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987 and was the third consecutive victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. ... Leicester East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... The term British Asian is used to denote a person of Southern Asian ancestry or origin, or sometimes Western Asian origin, who was born in or was an immigrant to the United Kingdom. ... Peter Bruinvels is a British Conservative Party politician, born March 30, 1950. ... Shapurji Saklatvala, Commons portrait, 1922 The Right Honourable Shapurji Saklatvala (March 28, 1874 - January 16, 1936) was a British politician and Member of Parliament for the Communist Party of Great Britain. ... A Select Committee is a committee made up of a small number of parliamentary members appointed to deal with particular areas or issues originating in the Westminster System of parliamentary democracy. ...

In March 1989, he led a protest in Leicester against Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. [1] At this event, Vaz addressed 3000 Muslim demonstrators, stating "today we celebrate one of the great days in the history of Islam and Great Britain" and attacked the Labour Party as a "godless party" [2]. In February 1990, he wrote in The Guardian newspaper urging Salman Rushdie not to publish the book in paperback because "there is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech". March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ... Leicester city centre, looking towards the Clock Tower Leicester (pronounced ) is the largest city and unitary authority in the English East Midlands. ... Ahmed Salman Rushdie KBE (Hindi: Urdu: سلمان رشدی; born 19 June 1947) is a British-Indian novelist and essayist. ... For the verses known as Satanic Verses, see Satanic Verses. ... There is also a collection of Hadith called Sahih Muslim A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Persian: Mosalman or Mosalmon Urdu: مسلمان, Turkish: Müslüman, Albanian: Mysliman, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of the religion of Islam. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...

Vaz became a frontbench spokesman on the Environment for the Official Opposition in 1992 and between 1993 and 1994 was a Member of the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. On Labour winning power in 1997, he became a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Government's Law Officers. The Parliamentary Opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a junior role given to a United Kingdom Member of Parliament (MP). ...

In 1999 he was promoted, becoming Minister for Europe in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and was tipped to become a Cabinet Minister, but it was at this point in time that he met his fall from grace. The Minister of State for Europe is an executive position in the Government of the United Kingdom, in charge of affairs with the European Union. ... The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Whitehall, seen from St. ... Alternate meanings in cabinet (disambiguation) A Cabinet is a body of high-ranking members of government, typically representing the executive branch. ...

Filkin inquiry

In February 2000 the Parliamentary standards watchdog Elizabeth Filkin was requested to investigate allegations of undisclosed payments to Vaz from businessmen in his constituency.^[1] The following year, 2001, members of the opposition began to question what role Vaz may have played in helping the billionaire Indian Hinduja brothers - linked with a corruption probe in India - to secure UK passports. Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... Her Majestys Loyal Opposition, or the Official Opposition in the United Kingdom is the largest opposition party in the House of Commons. ... The Hinduja brothers — Srichand (born 28 November 1935), Gopichand (born 29 February 1940) and Prakash — are an Indian business family. ...

In March 2001, the Filkin report cleared Vaz of nine of the 28 allegations of various financial wrongdoings, but Elizabeth Filkin accused Mr Vaz of blocking her investigation into eighteen of the allegations. He was also censured for one allegation - that he failed to register two payments worth £4,500 in total from Sarosh Zaiwalla, a solicitor whom he recommended for a peerage several years later. For other uses, see Peerage (disambiguation). ...

Mrs Filkin announced in the same month a new inquiry which would focus on whether or not a company connected to Vaz received a donation from a charitable foundation run by the Hinduja brothers. The results of the inquiry were published in 2002 and it was concluded that Vaz had "committed serious breaches of the Code of Conduct and a contempt of the House" and it was recommended that he be suspended from the House of Commons for one month which gave him plenty of time to concentrate on his profitable sidelines^[2]. A Foundation is a kind of philanthropic organization, set up by either individuals or institutions as a legal entity (usually either a corporation or a trust) with the purpose of distributing grants to support causes in line with the goals of the foundation. ...

Keith Vaz was also a director of the company General Mediterranean Holdings' owned by the Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, who had in the past hired British politicians Lords Steel and Lamont as directors. Vaz resigned his post as director when he became Minister for Europe, but it was later discovered that he had remained in contact with Auchi and had made enquiries on his behalf over a French extradition warrant, Auchi even calling Vaz at home to ask the minister for advice.^[3] The General Mediterranean Holdings (GenMed) is a financial holding established in 1979 in Luxembourg, through which Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi control his financial empire. ... Nadhmi Auchi, born in 1937, is a British-resident, Iraqi-born billionaire. ... David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC (born 31 March 1938) is a British and Scottish politician and a Liberal Democrat member of the UK House of Lords. ... Norman Stewart Hughson Lamont, Baron Lamont of Lerwick, PC (born 8 May 1942) was Conservative Member of Parliament for Kingston-upon-Thames, England from 1972 until 1997. ... Extradition is the official process by which one nation or state requests and obtains from another nation or state the surrender of a suspected or convicted criminal. ...

Since 2003 he has been a Member of the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee. Once suggested as a possible candidate for a future leader of the Labour Party, it is unclear whether he will ever return to a frontbench role.

Black Socialist Society

Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) voted to resurrect the defunct Black Socialist Society (BSS) in 2006. As part of this, the party set up an Ethnic Minority Taskforce. Tony Blair appointed Vaz to chair this taskforce. When membership of the BSS exceeded 2,500 in early 2007, the society qualified for its own seat on the NEC.^[4] Vaz was elected to this post on March 10 2007.^[5] The National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the UK Labour Party. ... March 10 is the 69th day of the year (70th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Home Affairs Select Committee

Vaz was elected Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, replacing John Denham, on the 27th July 2007. He joined the committee by way of an unorthodox Government Parliamentary procedure the previous day. The Home Affairs Select Committee is a Committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... John Denham is the name of either: John Yorke Denham (b. ...

Campaigns

Vaz has been called by some "the Jack Thompson of the UK" for his stance against what he perceives as violent computer games, and his outspoken views on their content. He has called for the '18'-rated Rockstar game Manhunt to be banned after claiming that the killers of British schoolboy Stefan Pakeerah had been influenced by the game. It had already been established by investigators however that the only person involved in the case who owned the game was the victim, Stefan, (despite him being only fourteen years old—an irony considering his mother's subsequent campaigning) and detectives ruled out Manhunt's influence on the killers' behaviour as there was no evidence that they had even heard of it.^[6]. This lack of even circumstantial evidence may, to some, appear to undermine the main foundations of Vaz's argument, and he has yet to provide a response to these points. John Bruce “Jack” Thompson (born July 25, 1951) is an American attorney and activist, based in Coral Gables, Florida. ... The Rockstar Games logo. ... Manhunter: New York and Manhunter 2: San Francisco Manhunt is a controversial video game released by Rockstar Games in November, 2003. ... Manhunter: New York and Manhunter 2: San Francisco Manhunt is a controversial video game released by Rockstar Games in November, 2003. ...

He has more recently voiced concern regarding the Rockstar game Canis Canem Edit (Bully in the US), suggesting that it also should be banned in the UK^[7]. He first raised the subject as early as October 2005, a year before the final game was released, expressing his concerns over Bully during Prime Minister's Question Time to Geoff Hoon who was taking Tony Blair's place at the time. He has reportedly not seen the actual game at any point, and has formed his views on it from the publisher's publicity material. During a piece on Radio 4 on January 9, 2007, Mr Vaz again talked about Bully (using this former name, not its revised name) and implied it was a bullying simulator, again implying that he has still not played it himself. He asked Hoon: "Does the leader of the house share my concern at the decision of Rockstar Games to publish a new game called Bully in which players use their on-screen persona to kick and punch other schoolchildren?" The Rockstar Games logo. ... Screenshot of Bully Bully , also known as Canis Canem Edit in Europe, is a video game under development by Rockstar Vancouver for Sony PlayStation 2 and is currently scheduled to be released in October 2006. ... Bully, also known as Canis Canem Edit (Latin for dog eat dog) in the PAL region,[2] is a third person action-adventure video game released by Rockstar Vancouver for the PlayStation 2 on October 17, 2006 in the United States, and October 25, 2006 in the United Kingdom. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Prime Ministers Questions is a Parliamentary practice in the United Kingdom where every Wednesday when the House of Commons is sitting, the Prime Minister spends half an hour answering questions from MPs. ... Geoff Hoon (right) at Pentagon briefing Geoffrey William Geoff Hoon (born December 6, 1953) is a British politician. ... is the 9th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ...

Vaz also entered the recent debate about racism on Celebrity Big Brother 2007; calling Jade Goody a bully for her treatment of Indian movie star Shilpa Shetty on the programme^{[citation needed]}. He subsequently invited Shetty to the Houses of Parliament, where she had tea with Tony Blair. It is not known whether Mr Vaz was at the meeting although he probably was as he is well known for taking on any cause if it means free publicity as can be noted above. Celebrity Big Brother 2007 is the fifth series of the United Kingdom reality television series Celebrity Big Brother, a spin-off of Big Brother. ... Jade Goody (born 5 June 1981) is a British reality television celebrity who gained notoriety for appearing in Big Brother. ... Shilpa Shetty (Tulu: ಶಿಲ್ಪ ಶೆಟ್ಟಿ) (born 8 June 1975 in Tamil Nadu, India) is a four-time Filmfare Award-nominated Indian film actress and Supermodel. ... This may refer to the: British Houses of Parliament. ... For other people of the same name, see Tony Blair (disambiguation) Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6, 1953)[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the Labour Party, and Member of Parliament for the constituency...

References

This article concerns the British newspaper. ... BBC News Online is the BBCs news web site and part of bbc. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... BBC News Online is the BBCs news web site and part of bbc. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 336th day of the year (337th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... GamePolitics. ...

External links

• Keith Vaz - Official Site
• Guardian Politics Ask Aristotle - Keith Vaz MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Keith Vaz MP