'Time for Vaz to go'

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MARCH 18.Call it a result of a media-feeding frenzy or a `racist' campaign to get rid of Britain's only Asian Minister, as he has alleged, Mr. Keith Vaz was on Sunday fighting for his political survival as three of his own party colleagues joined the demand for his ouster.

For the first time since the `Vaz affair' erupted two months ago, three Labour MPs criticised his conduct and agreed that his position as a minister had become untenable. This came at the end of a week in which a parliamentary watchdog committee accused him of obstructing its investigation into his business and constituency affairs, and there were fresh allegations of `impropriety' prompting calls for another inquiry. Two new allegations were reported in Sunday papers quoting Opposition leaders that these must be investigated.

While one related to a payment made by the Hinduja Foundation to Mapesbury Communications, a company set up by Mr. Vaz before he became a minister; the other raised questions about his reported action in overturning as many as 50 rulings of immigration officers on visa applications.

The Sunday Times alleged that the Hinduja foundation's payment of over £ 1,000 to Mr. Vaz's company was ``in return for helping to organise a Hinduja-sponsored reception at the House of Commons''. It said that when the parliamentary watchdog commissioner, Ms. Elizabeth Filkin, asked Mr. Vaz if he had ever received money from the Hindujas, his reply was: ``No donation has ever been made by the Hinduja brothers.''

The paper quoted a spokesman for Mr. Vaz as saying that the ``Hindujas were not the Hinduja Foundation; Mapesbury was not Vaz or his office; and that Vaz derived no income from Mapesbury.''

The Observer in his its report on Mr. Vaz's ``50 visa rulings'' saw an ``apparent conflict of interest'' in Mr. Vaz overseeing visa applications as his wife is an immigration lawyer and specialises in visa cases. ``Opposition MPs who have been calling for his resignation believe this could be the terminal blow to his ministerial career,'' said the paper adding that MPs would be demanding an inquiry to establish if the individuals whose visa applications were cleared after Mr. Vaz's intervention were linked to his business associates or Labour donors.

As the Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, came under renewed pressure from the Opposition and the media to sack Mr. Vaz, three Labour MPs - Mr. Peter Kilfoyle, Mr. Eric Illsley and Mr. Bill Olner - joined the anti-Vaz chorus and Labour benches were reported to be concerned that he was becoming a liability in the build-up to the elections.

Given the paper's extreme Tory right-wing credentials, it could be exaggerating but the sense even in the liberal media - The Guardian, The Observer and The Independent - was that it was time for Mr. Vaz to go, if not immediately then certainly after the elections.

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Section  : International
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