Attachment
Questions to Mr Keith Vaz MP based on
evidence which may be in conflict with Mr Vaz's initial responses
for Monday 3 July 2000 at 11.00am
ALLEGATIONS RELATING
TO PAYMENTS
OR OTHER
BENEFITS
(i) Mr Zaiwalla
1. Mr Zaiwalla says that in February 1994
he made a donation, at your request, of £1,000 in cash to
an Indian disaster relief charity and that this money was handed
to two men who called at his office and who he assumed were acting
on your behalf. Mr Zaiwalla has provided a photocopy of the cheque
used to draw the cash and the cashbook entry which clearly states
"cash—K Vaz...£1,000". Did you send anyone
to collect this payment? If not, why is Mr Zaiwalla under the
impression that you did?
2. Did you contact Mr Zaiwalla at any point
after he initially agreed to support this charity to press him
to make the donation?
3. What was the name of the charity and
why did you nominate it to receive a donation from Mr Zaiwalla?
Why was the payment required in cash?
4. Did you check whether the donation from
Mr Zaiwalla reached the charity? Have you any evidence that it
did? Can you obtain such evidence from the charity?
5. Were you a sponsor of either of the two
Gala Dinners supported by Mr Zaiwalla in 1998?
6. Did you or your office benefit in any
way, directly or indirectly, tangibly or intangibly, from your
association with these two events?
7. Did you either solicit or receive any
other payment or benefit from Mr Zaiwalla, whether for yourself
personally, the Labour Party, your constituency offices or any
charity or other organisation which you support or with which
you have any association or interest?
8. During a taped conversation with the
Sunday Telegraph (a transcript of which has been provided to me)
the following extract occurs:
"Sarosh Zaiwalla: You know Keith used to
keep telling me as he used to tell everybody else Mr Zaiwalla,
Lord Zaiwalla.
Rajeev Syal: Right
Sarosh Zaiwalla: I'm going to recommend you
to the honours. But I know that Keith said that to practically
everybody I know ..."
Did you ever make any remarks to Mr Zaiwalla,
whether jokingly or otherwise, which could have been construed
by him as meaning that you were considering recommending him for
an honour?
(ii) Mr Kapasi
9. What is your relationship with Mr Kapasi
and how long have you known him?
10. Have you ever asked Mr Kapasi for a
payment a) to you personally, b) for the Labour Party or c) as
a contribution to your constituency office expenses? If so, please
give details.
11. Did you ask Mr Kapasi to make a donation
to a charity nominated by you? If so what was the charity and
how did you select it?
12. Did you check to ensure that the money
reached the charity? Have you any evidence for this?
13. What is the Sahara Charity and what
role, if any, do you play in it or on its behalf? Can you provide
any documentation relating to it?
14. If you maintain your denial that Mr
Kapasi made payments to you, how do you explain Mr Kapasi's remarks
to the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times journalists, of which
transcripts exist? For example, Mr Kapasi, when asked by the Sunday
Times whether he had made payments to you said:
"I paid in 1992, 96...three cheques".
Later he added "One, I think was to a charity he [ie you,
Mr Vaz] set up...Sahara or whatever".
Asked to confirm the total amount of the 3 cheques
Mr Kapasi said:
"Er...fifteen hundred, yes".
Mr Kapasi also indicated that these payments
were in connection with a proposal to build a mosque:
"Rajeev Syal: what were you asking for?
Were you asking for planning permission? For here?
Jaffer Kapasi: for a place of worship.
Rajeev Syal: He was asking for money for him
to sort out a mosque with the local council
Jaffer Kapasi: to finance it, yes
Chris Hastings: you're joking
Rajeev Syal: outrageous. A mosque?
Chris Hastings: where was that?
Jaffer Kapasi: Hamilton."
Mr Kapasi told the Sunday Telegraph that he
gave you a cash donation towards your 1992 election campaign:
"I was asked to give a thousand. And I ended
up giving him about £500".
Asked how this cash was delivered, Mr Kapasi
said:
15. Mr Kapasi says one of those cheques
was drawn on the account of the Dawoodi community. What is this
organisation and what is your connection with it?
16. Did you either solicit or receive any
other payment or benefit from Mr Kapasi, whether for yourself
personally, the Labour Party, your constituency offices or any
charity or other organisation which you support or with which
you have any association or interest?
17. Why should Sir Peter Soulsby have invented
a story that Mr Kapasi had told him of your repeated requests
for payments, especially as he wrote the letter concerned to the
then Town Clerk in 1994—six years before my investigation
started?
18. What contact have you had with Mr Kapasi
since my investigation began and for what purpose?
(iii) Mr Kamal
19. Did you receive monthly payments of
£8 from Mr Kamal at any time during the period 1987-91, whether
made directly to you or not, and whether intended for personal
benefit or for the benefit of the Labour Party nationally or locally,
or your constituency office?
20. Since Mr Kamal says he made payments
to you by direct debit, presumably your bank statements for the
relevant period will show whether he is telling the truth. Can
you please supply me with those statements and, if you no longer
have them, give me details of the address and telephone number
of any bank or building society where you have an account (or
had an account during the period in question—1987-91) and
your authorisation so that I may obtain them?
21. Did you ask any other councillors in
Leicester to make monthly contributions of the sort described
by Mr Kamal?
22. What contact have you had with Mr Colin
Hall since my investigation began and for what reason? Have you
discussed Mr Kamal's letter to me of 17 April with Mr Hall at
any time?
(iv) Mr Singh Clair
23. Did the business community in Leicester,
whether Sikh or otherwise, and whether individually or collectively,
make any contribution to your election fund in 1997? If so, please
give details.
24. Have you ever had any discussions with
Mr Singh Clair about the possibility of obtaining donations either
for the Labour Party or for your own election funds?
25. Can you please supply me with the accounts
of your 1997 election campaign, or any other document which shows
the source of all income, including personal or corporate donations,
or any other form of support for, or sponsorship of, the campaign?
26. Did you either solicit or receive any
other payment or benefit from Mr Singh Clair, or through him from
any religious or business community, whether for yourself personally,
the Labour Party, your constituency offices or any charity or
other organisation which you support or with which you have any
association or interest?
(v) Mr Attwall
27. You have denied receiving a cheque from
Mr Attwall made out in your name. How do you explain the fact
that Mr Attwall has provided me with evidence of this payment
in the form of a cheque stub, dated 31 December 1992, indicating
that it was made out to you and was intended to be a donation
to the Labour Party?
28. Can you provide me with evidence of
what account that payment was paid into? Will you please provide
me with the statements for the first six months of 1993 for all
bank or building society accounts which you held during those
months, or your authorisation so that I can obtain them direct
from the bank or building society?
29. Mr Attwall has told journalists from
the Sunday Telegraph that he made a £1,000 payment to you
in the form of a cheque collected by your mother.
He actual words on the tape were:
"Actually I have checked my records...that
payment I made was one cheque and it was made to the Labour Party
through Mr Vaz."
Later the journalist asks Mr Attwall;
"...And you understand his mother came to
collect it."
Mr Attwall: "Yes".
Sunday Telegraph: "... It was for a thousand
pounds no more than that."
Mr Attwall: "...It was a thousand pounds."
Why should he say this if it is not true?
30. You say that the Labour Party has confirmed
that it received a donation from Mr Attwall in 1991-92 and that
this was collected by Mr John Thomas, Secretary of the Leicester
East party. For what sum was the payment and was it made in cash
or by cheque? Please provide the evidence which supports this.
31. Did you either solicit or receive any
other payment or benefit from Mr Attwall, whether for yourself
personally, the Labour Party, your constituency offices or any
charity or other organisation which you support or with which
you have any association or interest?
(vi) BCCI/Control Securities Ltd
32. As I understand it, you do not deny
that in 1991 you received a cheque for £5,000 from Control
Securities Ltd (later known as Ascot), but you claim that this
was a donation towards the cost of producing a report/bulletin
on the work of the immigration service. Your Register entry appears
to confirm this. Why, then, do the accounts of Control Securities
Ltd for 1991-92 show a donation to "Mr K Vaz Election Fund"?
33. What was the exact nature of your relationship
with Control Securities Ltd and how did they come to make a donation
to you or your office?
34. Can you please supply me with any records,
accounts etc, relating to the production of the report/bulletin
towards which you say the payment for Control Securities Ltd was
a contribution, and any letter you wrote requesting a donation
or acknowledging one?
35. Given that the payment was made in 1991,
why did you not register it until March 1993 (in an updated print-out
of the Register)?
36. By the time this entry appeared in a
published Register (January 1994) you had amended "Control
Securities Ltd" to "Control Ltd". Why did you do
this? Did you seek advice from the Registrar? If so, do you have
any record of this?
37. You apparently checked this entry with
the Registrar in January 1995 a year after the amendment had been
made. On what precise point did you ask his advice at that stage?
38. Mr Gosling alleges that you had a conflict
of interest in raising BCCI related issues because of your receipt
of a donation from Control Securities Ltd which was a shareholder
in, and landlord of, BCCI. What is your response to this allegation?
39. When raising BCCI related issues, either
in the House or with Ministers or departmental officials, did
you consider that you had a declarable interest with Control Securities
Ltd and did you in fact declare such an interest?
(vii) Mr Nazmu Virani
40. You have denied receiving computers
or office equipment from Mr Nazmu Virani. Can you confirm that
your denial covers both the loan or gift of any computers or office
equipment and the receipt of cash under any terms and for
any purpose from Mr Virani?
41. Have you ever met Mr Virani and, if
so, for what purpose?
(viii) Mr G K Noon
42. One of the allegations is that Mr G
K Noon paid your travel and accommodation costs for a visit to
Bahrain and that this was not registered. You have one Register
entry for a visit to Bahrain in October/November 1998 funded by
Mr Mohammed Dadabhai (though there are also entries for visits
to Yeman and Oman in March 1998, funded by the Committee for Middle
East Trade; and to Oman in February/March 1999 at the invitation
of the President of the Omani Parliament). Can you confirm that
no part of the travel or accommodation costs for any of these
visits—or any other visit to Bahrain—was paid for
by Mr Noon?
(ix) Mr Harish Patel
43. Mr Harish Patel denies ever having made
a payment to you or having provided you with support. You have
denied the specific allegation that Mr Patel sponsored a breakfast
meeting on your behalf and that this was not registered. However,
your Register entry for 31 January 1997 contains an entry under
Category 4 (Sponsorship or financial or material support) which
reads:
"Donation from Mr H Patel towards office
costs, no payment made to me".
Does this entry relate to Mr Harish Patel? If
so, what support did he provide to you and why did you not mention
this in your letter of 19 March? If not, who is Mr H Patel, and
what support did he provide to you, and why did you not think
it relevant to mention this in your letter of 19 March?
(x) Mr Z Pata (Bipin Jewellers)
44. Mr Kamal says you told him that Bipin
Jewellers had donated a car to your election campaign. You replied
that "many individuals provided their own cars during all
five of my election campaigns". Specifically, did either
Mr Z Pata or Bipin Jewellers provide you with a car or cars and,
if so, at which election and on what terms?
OTHER ALLEGATIONS
(i) The 50 Club
45. Did you personally have any involvement
in the running of the 50 Club in Leicester East? In particular,
did you ever collect, or otherwise act as the recipient for, subscriptions
to the Club?
46. Please would you explain to me how subscriptions
were made and who was responsible for the money? What pay outs
were made? Who keeps the accounts? Are subscribers able to see
them? Please provide any supporting documentation.
(ii) Land acquisition by religious groups
47. Mr Kapasi told the Sunday Telegraph
that either you or your mother solicited, and in some cases received,
donations from the different religious communities in connection
with the acquisition of land for religious buildings at discounted
prices. Mr Kapasi, asked how these approaches were made, said:
"His mother was very crude... But he was
much more subtle than that".
And later, when asked whether your mother collected
such donations herself:
"That does not surprise me. He will do that...
he will use his mother to sort this one out".
Did you or Mrs Vaz senior ever make any approach
to any religious groups, or have any discussions with them, which
could have been construed as meaning that you or Mrs Vaz senior
wished to be paid, or that you wished to have payments made to
charities or other organisations with which you have associations
or interests or which you support, for taking up their case in
connection with a proposed land acquisition in relation to the
possible construction of religious buildings?
48. Having considered all these matters
in detail are there any omissions or errors in your Register entries
which you now wish to rectify.
Elizabeth Filkin
29 June 2000
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