The 'Teflon' MP who counts leaders among his friends In 1987 he became one of the few Asian MPs in Parliament when he was elected for Labour in Leicester East. In 1999 he became the first Asian minister when he was promoted to Europe minister. But within months of his appointment, questions were being raised over his conduct. In early 2000, Elizabeth Filkin, who was parliamentary commissioner for standards, began an investigation into whether Mr Vaz had taken payments from a solicitor called Sarosh Zaiwalla. The original allegations, made by a partner of Mr Zaiwalla, were that Mr Vaz had accepted thousands of pounds to fund his parliamentary office while he was in opposition but that the money had not been declared. He denied the claims. Almost immediately, Ms Filkin's inquiry ran into a brick wall. Mr Vaz delayed the investigation for months, refusing to hand over information and refusing to answer questions. Most of the allegations - including that Mr Vaz had received thousands of pounds in cash - were not upheld. However, unusually for a parliamentary report, many of the allegations were listed as "not completed" rather than rejected. "The commissioner reported that she had not been able, because of the unsatisfactory way in which information was provided to her inquiry by both Mr Vaz and Mr Zaiwalla, to reach a conclusion as to whether Mr Vaz received any registrable benefit of any kind from Mr Zaiwalla," the report noted. We deprecate the behaviour of those witnesses who could have helped the commissioner but did not do so. They had a duty to give the commissioner the assistance she needed to do her job. A key element of the inquiry was the involvement of a company called Mapesbury Communications, which Mr Vaz set up in 1994. It was intended to receive his earnings from outside parliament and finance his parliamentary office, but he denied ever having subsequently received money from the company, whose sole shareholder was his wife, Maria Fernandes. Ms Filkin reported that despite her "repeated requests" Mr Vaz had not "provided me with any information to enable me to establish the precise sources of the company's income or where it goes to." "I remain of the view that Mr Vaz could, and should, have been more candid and forthcoming in answering my questions about Mapesbury," the commissioner added. Mr Vaz was in a position to clarify this uncertainty and chose, for whatever reason, not to do so. Despite the difficulties she had faced during the first inquiry, Ms Filkin reopened her investigations into Mr Vaz during 2001. This time, the allegation was that the billionaire Hinduja brothers had also made payments to Mapesbury as part of their attempts to secure a British passport. Again, Mr Vaz was asked about Mapesbury. Again, the information was not forthcoming. The Commons standard and privileges committee noted: "We find it odd that the information about a company established by Mr Vaz and run by his friends and relations has proved so elusive, and that the directors of what was a small company were able to provide so little information about where its money had come from and where it had gone." Despite the prevarication, Ms Filkin managed to show that the Hindujas had paid Fernandes Vaz - the legal firm run by Ms Fernandes - for work on visas. The committee concluded that Mr Vaz - whose tenure as Europe minister came to an end in June 2001 through a resignation for "health reasons" - had provided misleading information to the first investigation and he was suspended from parliament for a month in 2002. But the central allegations made against him remained unproven. He was not found to have illicitly received money from outside sources that had not been declared. As The Daily Telegraph reveals, the Metropolitan Police is also thought to have briefed the then Cabinet Secretary, Sir Richard Wilson, on its findings - which, under usual practice, would have been passed on in turn to the prime minister. Ms Filkin resigned soon after the publication of the second report amid allegations that she had been bullied and undermined. The ability of Parliament to police its own affairs was in question. For Mr Vaz, political rehabilitation took almost five years, as he became gradually more influential in helping shore up the increasingly significant Asian vote for first Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown. Yesterday, Ed Miliband, speaking about wanting a more diverse party in his opening address at the Labour conference in Manchester, paid tribute to Mr Vaz as the country's longest-serving Asian MP. Mr Vaz gained popularity in the House, writing birthday cards to those from all political sides. However, Mr Blair, despite accepting his support, was never to promote the backbench MP again. It was not until Mr Brown became prime minister in June 2007 that the colourful Labour MP was to be given a high-profile role once more. His promotion to chairman of the home affairs select committee was unusual because he was nominated by Harriet Harman, leader of the House, rather than being proposed by a selection committee. Yet again, the smell of scandal was never far away. Although Mr Vaz represents a seat in Leicester, his family home is in Stanmore, north London. During the expenses scandal in 2009, the Telegraph disclosed that the backbencher had claimed more than £75,500 for a flat in Westminster despite his £1.15 million family home being just 12 miles from parliament. He also switched his designated second home - the property on which he claimed expenses - from the £545,000 flat to a house in his Leicester constituency and back again in the space of a year. At the same time, Mr Vaz was drawn into a scandal over a lawyer who specialised in race relations and who led several cases against the Metropolitan Police. Mr Vaz was accused of writing to a High Court judge trying to halt proceedings against the solicitor's firm, which had lavished hospitality on him and his family. The lawyer has since been struck off after being found guilty of 104 breaches of the rules governing solicitors" conduct by a central London disciplinary tribunal. But the controversies had little impact on Mr Vaz's political career and he has gone on to play a key role in examining the role of the Metropolitan Police in the phone-hacking scandal. It may now be detectives working for Scotland Yard who have evidence that could call into question his conduct in the previous parliamentary inquiries into his finances. As can be disclosed today, the police, who have far greater powers to obtain evidence, had secretly begun their own investigation into the Labour MP's finances after concerns had been raised by the parliamentary commissioner more than a decade ago. Detectives went to court to obtain production orders requiring several high street banks to provide full details of Mr Vaz's financial affairs. They apparently show huge sums of money for an MP earning less than £100,000 a year being moved in and out of his bank account. The police also claim to have established that "at least one payment has been received into this personal account from Mapesbury Communications" and, if true, this would contradict what Mr Vaz told MPs investigating his conduct. The transcript of the committee's cross-examination says Mr Vaz was asked: "Since its inception, Mapesbury has not provided you with any form of benefit or support for your constituency office? "No," Mr Vaz replied. "No benefit whatsoever?" he was asked for a second time. "No," he said again. The police are under pressure to release whatever evidence they hold on Mr Vaz to the current parliamentary commissioner for standards, so that the case can be reopened if necessary. If they agree, this stands to present the most sticky problem yet faced by the man known as Vazeline.