Former Labour MP Keith Vaz continues to pull the strings in Labour’s local elections in Leicester, more than two years after he stepped down as an MP – and more than five years after he resigned from the Home Affairs Select Committee after being exposed offering to buy drugs for male prostitutes.
Vaz was never removed from the Labour party – and even after he was found guilty of ‘sustained bullying’ by an ‘Independent Expert Panel’ he was not suspended and was allowed to insert himself into and effectively run the party’s disastrous Humberstone and Hamilton by-election.
And despite his disgraced record and his recent by-election catastrophe, Vaz is appearing in official party communications as the ‘campaign coordinator’ for the new by-election in the area triggered by the death of Cllr Ratilal Govind:
Evington By-Election Campaigning – Sat 08 January; 11:30am; LE5 6DN
Following the passing of dedicated Councillor, Ratilal Govind, a by-election is to be held on 3rd February. Canvassing will start each day at 11am from 19 Main Street, Evington, LE5 6DN, starting this Saturday 8th from 11.30am in the first instance. The Campaign Co-ordinator is Keith Vaz and can be contacted on 07[redacted] for more information. I would encourage you to join in to get Shahid Khan elected, to ensure we retain this important seat. The Tories will be motivated following their win in Humberstone and Hamilton.
Govind was one of several Leicester councillors who issued a statement attacking Labour just before the 2019 general election because of the then-leadership’s stance on visits to the UK by right-winger Narendra Modi after Modi revoked Kashmiri autonomy. Locals say that the new candidate in the election is close to Vaz.
Skwawkbox view:
Left members are being hounded out of the party en masse on the flimsiest retrospective pretext, but it seems that Keir Starmer’s Labour thinks a record of bullying and offering to act as a drug-dealer is good qualification to run election campaigns.
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