Keith Vaz now faces a fresh allegation about his contentious links to prostitution
B Mathur / Reuters
Vaz, who resigned as Home Affairs Committee chair last week after a Daily Mirror report said he paid for the services of male sex workers, has now been accused of trying to stop a council evicting a brothel owner 25 years ago.
The MP was not immediately available for comment when Business Insider contacted his office.
The new Daily Mirror report alleges that police are currently assessing whether the disgraced MP could be charged on the grounds of abuse of office and personal misconduct over the allegation which dates back to 1991.
Paul Gosling, a former Labour city councillor, says a man called Nigel Philpot-Jones secretly ran a male brothel at a council flat in Leicester, where Vaz currently serves as an MP.
In a witness statement, Gosling added that Vaz acted in an inappropriate and bullying way to try and stop the council from evicting Philpot-Jones over missing rent payments.
Vaz is not subject a formal investigation over the allegations. However, four unnamed people told The Times that they had been interviewed by Leicestershire Police as part of an investigation which has been underway for at least 12 months.
The Mirror's original expose claimed Vaz offered to cover the costs of cocaine for the sex workers and told one of them to bring "poppers" to the flat where they met up - a sex-enhancing drug. As committee chair, Vaz led the inquiry into whether parliament should liberalise prostitution laws, and often took a hardline approach to the risks of illegal drugs.
At a press conference Business Insider attended last week, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn refused to be drawn on whether Vaz would face suspension, saying he would leave decisions regarding Vaz's future to the party's National Executive Committee.
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