Keith Vaz could avoid suspension if elected as MP again

A disgraced former MP would not have to serve his suspension if he managed to get re-elected, the leader of the House of Commons has said.

Keith Vaz, who served as Leicester MP for 32 years, retired from Parliament two years ago after being caught with "male prostitutes and offering to get drugs for them".

After he stood down, Claudia Webbe was elected as a Labour MP for Leicester East, but now she has been convicted of harassment. She has now been suspended by the Labour Party.

Claudia Webbe, MP. (Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

Vaz, 62, despite the scandal is free to stand again as a Labour candidate and he need not have to serve a six-month suspension he was given.

The suspension was recommended by other MPs on the Commons Standards Committee because his scandal had caused "significant damage" to the reputation of the House of Commons.

A “suspension cannot carry across into a new Parliament”, Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, the Commons Leader was quoted as saying when asked about the return of Vaz.

According to Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, who serves North West Leicestershire, said there was a "strong possibility" of a byelection in Leicester East following the conviction of Webbe and reports suggesting return of Vaz to the Commons.

“Given that he received the six-month ban from the House of Commons in 2019 following the cocaine and rent boy scandal, which he avoided by standing down, will he [Jacob Rees-Mogg] give a statement to the House where hopefully, he will confirm that if Mr Vaz were to return to this place he would have to serve his punishment outstanding in full?,” Bridgen was quoted as saying.

In September, during his time as MP, a separate report found that Vaz bullied a member of parliamentary staff in a "hostile, sustained, harmful” way.

An independent panel found he bullied and harassed Jenny McCollough to such an extent that she left her career in the House of Commons.