Vaz re-elected UK house panel chair
Friday, 19/06/2015
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
LONDON: Recent revelations in the British press about senior Labour MP Keith Vaz’s role in the Lalit Modi-Sushwa Swaraj row failed to affect his political profile as he was elected chairman of the powerful Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons on Thursday.
Vaz, 58, who held the same position in the last parliament, was pitted against Fiona Mactaggart. The Sunday Times had published details of his intervention in securing travel papers for Lalit Modi before the election to the post, but did not seem to affect his prospects in the election.
Vaz’s bid for re-election as chairman was boosted by the decision of the parliamentary standards commissioner not to open an investigation against him, after he was reported for allegedly misusing his position in the case. Vaz was the chairman of the committee in 2014 when he reportedly wrote to Sarah Rapson, director-general of UK visas and immigration to make his Modi’s travel papers available.
His re-election ensures that he survives another controversy in a career marked by several rows, including the one related to Vaz allegedly writing to the Home Office to expedite the applications of Hinduja brothers for British citizenship in 2001. Dubbed a ‘teflon’ politician for his knack of bouncing back after controversies, Vaz is the longest-serving MP of Indian/ Asian origin, being first elected to the House of Commons in 1987.
