Why is Keith Vaz facing calls to quit as Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee?
Leicester East MP alleged to have paid for the services of two male escorts and told them to bring 'poppers'
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Your support makes all the difference.What are the allegations against him?
Vaz is alleged to have paid for the services of two male escorts and told them to bring “poppers” – a liquid chemical drug often used by gay men to enhance sex - to their rendezvous.
The Sunday Mirror also reported he had offered to pay for cocaine and that an individual “linked” to a diabetes charity set up by the MP paid money into an account used by one of the escorts.
Is it illegal to buy sex?
No. Prostitution – the buying of sexual services – is legal, although some related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, and pimping, are crimes.
And paying for the sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force is illegal.
Is it illegal to take poppers?
No. Technically known as alkyl nitrites, poppers won a last minute reprieve earlier this year, when they were excluded from the Psychoactive Substances Act.
Anyway, there is nothing to suggest Vaz took them at the meeting.
Is it illegal to offer to pay for cocaine?
The Sunday Mirror stressed that Vaz did not want the drug for himself and, according to its account, no cocaine was bought.
Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, it is only an offence to supply or offer to supply another person with a controlled drug.
What about the alleged link to the diabetes charity?
The Charity Commission is examining the claims that an individual “linked to the diabetes charity Silver Star”, set up by Vaz, paid money into an account used by one of the escorts.
In a statement, it said: “We will assess any evidence to determine whether there is a regulatory role for the Commission.”
Silver Star has denied that any payments were made from the charity and there was no suggestion in the newspaper’s report that the charity’s money was used, or that the person who transferred the payments knew the purpose of any payments.
Is there a potential conflict of interest?
The Home Affairs committee is currently investigating prostitution. In preliminary findings, in July, it said soliciting should no longer be an offence and came out against bringing in a new law to prosecute people who pay for sex.
It said a “sex buyer law” was unlikely to reduce demand for prostitution, or help the police tackle “crime and exploitation associated with the sex industry”.
The Sunday Mirror argued that Vaz – while having done nothing illegal – had left himself “open to accusations he could have a vested interest in the conclusions of such committees”.