Keith Vaz

The Right Honourable Keith Vaz
Official portrait, 2017
Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee
In office 26 July 2007 – 6 September 2016
Preceded by	John Denham
Succeeded by	Tim Loughton (acting)
Minister of State for Europe
In office 9 May 1999 – 11 June 2001
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Geoff Hoon
Succeeded by	Peter Hain
Member of Parliament for Leicester East
In office 11 June 1987 – 6 November 2019
Preceded by	Peter Bruinvels
Succeeded by	Claudia Webbe
Personal details
Born	Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz (1956-11-26) 26 November 1956 (age 67) Aden Colony (now Yemen)
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Maria Fernandes
Relations	Valerie Vaz (sister) Penny McConnell (sister)
Children	2
Alma mater	Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (MA)
Website	Official website

Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz (born 26 November 1956) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987 to 2019. He was the British Parliament's longest-serving British Asian MP.

Vaz served as the Minister for Europe between October 1999 and June 2001. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in June 2006. He was Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee from July 2007, but resigned from this role on 6 September 2016 after the Sunday Mirror revealed he had engaged in unprotected sexual activity with male prostitutes and had said he would pay for cocaine if they wished to use it.

At the end of October 2016, Vaz was appointed to the Justice Select Committee; a parliamentary vote to block his appointment was defeated.^[1] On 10 November 2019, he said in a statement that he was retiring from Parliament and would not be standing for re-election at the general election the following month.^[2]