Announcing his resignation, the Labour MP said: “Those who hold others to account must themselves be accountable.”

Mr Vaz’s departure as chairman of the home affairs committee comes days after reports emerged claiming that he paid two male escorts he met at a flat he owns near his family home in north London last month. Keith Vaz biography

Born in 1956 to Goan parents in Aden in what is now Yemen, he went to Cambridge University where he studied law and then became a solicitor

The Labour Party politician has been MP for Leicester East since 1987

He is Parliament's longest-serving British Asian MP and has chaired the influential Home Affairs Select Committee since 2007

He was Britain's Minister for Europe under Tony Blair and said the vote to leave the EU was a "catastrophe"

His sister Valerie is Labour MP for Walsall South

Keith Vaz - the 'Teflon politician'

In his statement announcing his resignation from the chairman role he has held for nine years, Mr Vaz said: "The integrity of the select committee system matters to me. “He has clearly acted in the best interests of the Home Affairs Select Committee and the important work that we do and with sadness we all accepted that was the appropriate course of action that he has taken and we also appreciate the many challenges facing him personally and his family. An informed source told the Guardian the Labour MP will tell the home affairs select committee that he will step down as chair at a meeting in parliament on Tuesday. He said: “Those who hold others to account, must themselves be accountable.”

But his resignation statement only said sorry for “recent events” - and failed to mention the behaviour which triggered his spectacular downfall, making no apology for the shame he has brought on his family, the committee and the House of Commons. “I’m pleased he’s done what I think we all expected he would do and has stood down.”

Asked whether Prime Minister Theresa May backed his resignation, a spokeswoman said: “It is a decision for him.”

A new chairman is set to be elected next month, with Labour’s Chuka Umunna tipped to take over. Mr Loughton, who is currently the longest serving Conservative on the committee, said: “Keith Vaz came to the meeting of the select committee.
British MP Keith Vaz quits the Home Affairs Select Committee following allegations that he had engaged in sexual activity with male prostitutes.