British MP facing suspension after cocaine probe

A British MP who headed a parliamentary committee probing drug policies is facing a six-month suspension after a lengthy inquiry into claims he offered to pay for cocaine.

Former Europe minister Keith Vaz, 62, committed a “very serious breach” of code of conduct for MPs, said the House of Commons Standards Committee.

The Sunday Mirror reported in September 2016 that Vaz, posing as an industrial washing machine salesman called Jim, invited two male prostitutes into his flat to engage in paid-for sex and offered to pay for cocaine for another man to use.

Married with two children, Vaz, who was born in Aden to a family from Goa, has been the MP for the central England seat of Leicester East since 1987.

“I found Mr Vaz’s account of the events that led to the media reports incredible,” said Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards.

“I found his reason for being unable to assist me fully with my inquiry implausible.”

The standards committee said his explanation that the men were there to discuss redecorating the London flat, and that he may have been given a “spiked drink”, was “not believable and, indeed, ludicrous”.