Annex 115
Letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards from Councillor Mustafa Kamal
Thank you for your letter of 28 June 2000. As
suggested by you I paid a visit to my Bank Manager yesterday afternoon.
He is happy to comply with your request but says that the cost
could be as high as £400 and could take several days. If
you still want me to go ahead then please do let me know and I
shall instruct him accordingly. However, before you make up your
mind I would like to go through the events leading up to issuing
a direct debit instruction to my Bank for £8.00 per month
to help Keith Vaz's office at 144/146 Uppingham Road, Leicester.
Not very long after the 1987 local elections
Keith Vaz MP demanded that all elected members from Leicester
East (a Constituency he represents in the House of Commons) should
contribute £2.00 per week to carry out work to make sure
Leicester East stays under Labour control. Now if the implication
from his response to you is that money collected was to be used
to run Leicester East Constituency Labour Party then obviously
he does not understand how the constituencies raise funds to meet
their expenditures. They are partly funded by the centre and the
rest through the activities of the Constituency organised by its
executive. Prior to the arrival of Keith Vaz the Constituency
actually had a fund raising officer. Even if one is inclined to
believe Mr Vaz, it still amounts to the same thing, Leicester
East Constituency Labour Party and Keith Vaz's office are one
and the same. It is a fact that for a very long time the constituency
office was operated from 146 Uppingham Road, a property owned
by Mr Vaz. I personally collected material for distribution for
local and National elections from those premises. I would like
to reiterate that to raise funds to run a constituency has never
been the responsibility of a MP, and when Mr Vaz asked for a financial
contribution I thought in all honesty that I was doing this to
assist his office, and in doing so helping Labour.
6 July 2000
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