Political Life
Vaz has been a Labour member since 1982.
In 1983, Vaz stood in the general election as the Labour candidate in the Richmond and Barnes constituency, coming third and losing his deposit. He stood as the Labour candidate in the European Parliament election in 1984 for Surrey West, coming third.
On 11 June 1987, Vaz was elected as the Member of Parliament for Leicester East with a majority of 1,924. He was re-elected in 1992 (majority of 11,316), 1997 (majority of 18,422), 2001 (majority of 13,442), 2005 (majority of 15,867) and 2010 (majority 14,082).
Vaz has held a variety of parliamentary posts. Between 1987 and 1992, he was a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, of which he has been the Chair since July 2007. Between 1993 and 1994, he was a member of the Executive Committee Inter-Parliamentary Union. Finally, between December 2002 and July 2007, Vaz acted as a senior Labour Member of the Select Committee for Constitutional Affairs.
In 1992, Vaz was given the role of Shadow Junior Environment Minister with responsibility for planning and regeneration, his first frontbench role. He remained in this position until 1997, when he was given his first Government post as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Attorney General and Solicitor General. Vaz then served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department between May and October 1999. This was quickly followed by his appointment as the Minister for Europe, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He served in this position from October 1999 and June 2001.
Other positions currently held include as an elected member of the National Executive Committee and as the Vice-Chair of Women, Race and Equality Committee of the Labour Party. He has held both of these positions since March 2007. Since 2000, he has been a patron of the Labour Party Race Action Group and in 2006 he was appointed the Chairman of the Ethnic Minority Taskforce.
Vaz was the first Asian Member of Parliament since Shapurji Saklatvala in the 1920s and remains the longest-standing Asian MP.
Read more about this topic: Keith Vaz
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