Annex 68
File note by the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards
I rang Mr Brown to thank him for his letter
to say to him that there was one matter that I needed to get clear,
that I had got a transcript of the conversation between himself
and Mr Milne and I needed to confirm that what that typescript
said was accurate. I said the transcript indicated that he had
seen money that he collected from the bank being handed to Mr
Vaz.
Mr Brown told me this was so. He said "Mr
Vaz had recently become an MP. He was asking for money from Mr
Zaiwalla to help set up his office." I asked Mr Brown if
this was a gift or a loan and he said it was definitely a gift,
it was not a loan. I asked him whether he had given the money
to Mr Vaz or Mr Zaiwalla had. He said he could not be sure, it
could have been either. His usual practice when asked to do so
was to take the money into Mr Zaiwalla's room and Mr Zaiwalla
would give it to the person who was to receive it. However, sometimes
when he took the money he had got from the bank into Mr Zaiwalla's
room, he would hand it direct to the person concerned. On this
occasion he went to the bank and drew out the cash of £1,000
and took it into Mr Zaiwalla's room where Mr Vaz was and Mr Vaz
collected it either from Mr Zaiwalla or from Mr Brown.
Mr Brown reiterated that his understanding was
that this money was to set up Mr Vaz's office as a Member of Parliament.
9 March 2000
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