Labour has called on Keith Vaz to be transparent about how he’s funding his election campaign.
The ex-Labour MP is standing for his old seat in Leicester East, under the banner of One Leicester - a party with two candidates. As well as Mr Vaz, who was given a six-month Commons suspension for offering to buy drugs for sex workers then failing to cooperate with an inquiry, Rahoul Naik is standing for the party in Leicester West.
Now Leicester’s Labour Mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, has called on Mr Vaz to clarify where the cash to fund his campaign is coming from.
“It is confusing and concerning that Mr Vaz appears to be able to self-fund a full General Election campaign as an independent candidate on what appears to be a modest income,” he said. “Mr Vaz proved long ago his conduct is beneath the values we expect of our public servants. The people of Leicester East deserve clarity about where the money is coming from and who is pulling the strings cast their vote on 4 July.”
A spokesperson for One Leicester said: "Per our constitution, we have made an appeal for donations for our two candidates in the General Election. These will be registered in the same way as all other parties. All the donations will be recorded as per the Electoral Commission rules. “
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Parties and candidates are required to declare all donations over £11,180 in value. So far, no donations to One Leicester made before 20 June have been published by the Commission.
Today is the final deadline to declare donations taken between 13th and 19th of June to the Electoral Commission if they’re to be published before the election, which would be published this Friday.
Donations received between 20 June - 26 June will be published on 8 July. And donations received between 27 June - 4 July will be published on 15 July.
The spokesperson added: “Peter Soulsby presumes to know the income of one of our candidates which is nonsense. He states in the quote you sent that it is "well funded" which again is nonsense. In fact he, as a member of the Labour Party, knows nothing about our campaign nor should he. He seems to be spending more time speaking to journalists than campaigning for his candidate, one he did not back during the selection process. We find it incredibly sad that the City Mayor of an almost bankrupt council seems to think it is appropriate use of his time to make assertions and spread rumours about candidates in the General Election. Surely, he has more important things to do for the city?”
They also noted Sir Peter had admitted breaking lockdown rules during the Covid pandemic.
"So many people in Leicester were unable to say goodbye to their loved ones, whilst he was flaunting the very rules he set,” they said. "We look forward to seeing the donations list from Peter Soulsby's election campaign last year.
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