Annex ii46
File note by the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards
KEITH
VAZ
23 JULY
2001
TELEPHONE
CONVERSATION
WITH
MRS
PAULINE
ELIZABETH
WILLIAMS
Address * * *
Mr Fellstrom had informed me that Mrs Williams would
be happy to give me evidence and on that basis I telephoned her.
Mrs Williams gave me the following information during
our conversation and in her reply to the draft file note of the
conversation:
1. Mrs Williams worked on a voluntary basis in
Mr Vaz's Leicester office from April 1999 to January 2000. She
was asked to work as a volunteer by Mrs Vaz senior and did so
as she believed working for an MP would be a great opportunity
as well as a good experience. In her role she took telephone calls
from constituents and referred them to the appropriate member
of staff, provided filing and administrative backup, sent out
letters in reply to correspondence and helped with the administration
of conferences.
2. Mrs Williams said that during the period she
worked in the office
BJ was the Director of
the Leicester Constituency Office. BJ had overall responsibility.
BJ's office, which had filing cabinets under lock and key, was
situated upstairs in the back room.
Hanif Pathan was the Director
of Events and Communications. Mr Pathan was in charge of all events.
Mr Pathan's office, which was out of bounds to Mrs Williams, was
situated upstairs in the first front room. Mrs Williams was told
to leave all correspondence addressed to Mr Pathan unopened at
the bottom of the stairs. Mr Pathan would always turn up to the
office at approximately 10:00 am every morning, pick up his mail
and go straight to his room. Mr Pathan was also in charge of renewing
the stationery, which was often stored at 146 Uppingham Road.
Mr Pathan also stored excess bottles of wine from venues and other
items at this address. On two occasions Mr Pathan brought back
several Christmas stockings which were ordered for the Westminster's
Kids club. Mr Pathan would swear a lot when things were not running
smoothly.
AA was promoted to caseworker
during Mrs William's time spent there and was situated in the
downstairs room opposite to Keith Vaz's. AA was put under a lot
of pressure from both BJ and Mr Pathan and on one occasion she
was brought to tears.
Mrs Williams had started off in AA's room then was
given the conference room as her office, which was situated behind
Mr Vaz's, leading onto the back garden. During Mrs Williams' time
at 144 Uppingham Road, Mr Vaz had his entire office redecorated,
carpeted throughout and new desks in all rooms apart from his
own. Mr Vaz used 146 Uppingham Road as a storage place and a place
for students or office staff from his London office.
Mrs Williams said that her role at Mr Vaz's office
consisted of the following —
· Taking telephone calls from constituents
and referring them when necessary to the appropriate members of
staff
· Answering all voice mail messages
· Sorting out the mail
· Providing filing and administrative backup
· Signing for the post when Mr Pathan or
BJ was too busy to do so
· Sorting out all Mr Vaz's photos from all
his venues and placing them in albums
· Making sure that Mr Vaz's briefcase was
topped up with stationary, plus a regular supply of IND forms
· When the cleaner didn't turn up or there
were pots in the sink from others, she would do the cleaning up
· Taking care of all office plants
· When the office was being refurbished,
she had to pack everything away, lift heavy furniture such as
tables
· Fetching stamps, newspapers (to check
for local issues as well as articles on Mr Vaz ), ordering photographs
from the Leicester Mercury signed for as Sally Walker as these
were to be used in Mr Vaz's bulletins
· Making a weekly report to update Mr Vaz
· Replying to all diary declines
· Organising Mr Vaz's surgeries. Mrs Williams
said she was told that if it was a three-hour surgery then she
was to give the first hour to the whites and the remaining two
hours to the Asians. When she asked why, Ms BJ replied it was
because the Asians' cases were more complicated than the whites'.
Mrs Williams said she found ordering a regular amount IND Forms
a little strange because being in charge of Mr Vaz's surgeries
she was fully aware of each constituent's case that was going
before Mr Vaz as she had to pull out their files. Nearly every
time several IND forms would have disappeared but no entries were
made on any of the files for new applicants wanting indefinite
stays in the UK. She said she had noticed this particularly when
a certain constituent called MPS of * * * attended. She said she
felt very anxious when this constituent needed a surgery appointment
because he wouldn't say what his case was regarding or whom it
was regarding. He would just reply in an abrupt manner "Mr
Vaz knows" and ask to be put through to BJ. After transferring
his call BJ would come back to Mrs Williams and say "Keith
knows, just book him in at the end of the surgery". Even
if the surgery was full he would always get seen. Anyone else
would have to call the office again.
Mrs Williams said she became more anxious when she
overheard a conversation between BJ and AA. They used a word which
she had not come across to describe MPS's conduct. When Mrs Williams
asked AA, who worked part-time in the office, to explain what
it meant and what it had to do with MPS, AA replied that the Home
Office believed that MPS was involved in bringing illegal immigrants
into the country for money.
Then, during the Christmas of 1999, Mr Vaz had arranged
to go to India with MPS. Mrs Williams said she started to get
a little frightened as both Mr Vaz and his members of staff were
at that time fully aware of what the Home Office has said about
MPS and Mr Vaz still arranged to go to India with him. Mrs Williams
also said that whenever the Leicester Office needed any help with
stuffing envelopes at election time, MPS was always there with
a group of Asians who did not speak English.
3. Mrs Williams helped with various conferences
organised by Mr Vaz's office. She gave as examples —
(a) 1999 a Leicester
East Annual Labour Party Dinner attended by Lord Falconer Minister
of State at the Cabinet Office, and Margaret McDonagh, General
Secretary of the Labour Party. This was held at the Safari Club
in Leicester. Mrs Williams had a security role and had to make
sure all members were satisfied. She sold raffle tickets. She
said the following about the raffle —
With the help of SW approximately £300.00 was
raised. This money was, she believed, for the Labour Party, but
the amount that was raised was not announced at the venue, which
she thought a little strange. The following day she was given
the money back by Mr Pathan who was in joint charge of this venue
with BJ to count out the proceeds. The money was then handed to
Mr Pathan.
(b) 1999 The Intto Leadership Conference
held at the Connaught Rooms in London on the 23rd June 1999. On
22nd June 1999 Mrs Williams met BJ together with Mr Vaz's mother
(Cllr Merlyn Vaz) and his sister (Valerie) at the London Road
railway station by 9:45am. She said they were all picked up by
one of Keith Vaz's chauffeurs then dropped off at different points
in London. She was dropped off at the Connaught Rooms where the
Inter Leadership Conference was to be held on 23rd June 1999.
Mrs Williams had to assist with preparing the registration room,
which consisted of setting up tables in alphabetical order, preparing
name tags, literature, goodie bags (containing a wooden foot massager,
programs that supported the event, etc.), she had to wait until
earlier hours of the following morning before having a small slice
of pizza and a can of pop. She was driven to a small hotel where
she had only 1 hour to rest and freshen up then she was taken
back to the Connaught Rooms for a quick briefing with BJ and Mr
Pathan and approximately 2-3 members from the London Office along
with approximately a dozen student volunteers. This was a large
conference with over a thousand delegates organised by Mr Vaz.
Her key task was to ensure the smooth running of the registration
room. Mr Vaz gave everyone a quick guide around the building where
everyone was going to be positioned and then gave a last minute
briefing as to their responsibilities. Mr Pathan had overall responsibility
as he had made the arrangements for the conference, booked the
rooms and taken cheques from the delegates at Keith Vaz's Leicester
Constituency Office. The cheques were made out to the Inter Leadership
Conference. Mrs Williams said she knew this because she was asked
by Mr Pathan to make photocopies of all cheques and then file
them into black Arch lever folders in numeric order. A Diversity
Gala Dinner followed the Conference on the same evening. Delegates
would pay one price for the Conference itself and an additional
sum for the Diversity Dinner.
(c) Mrs Williams said there were
other conferences organised by the Leicester office.
On one occasion Mrs Williams referred to a conference
as being "organised by Mr Vaz" and she was told by one
of the workers in Mr Vaz's London office that she should not refer
to it in those terms. When she inquired why, she was told that
Mr Vaz could get into trouble if he was seen to be organising
conferences.
4. Mapesbury
Mrs Williams said she didn't know anything about
Mapesbury but she had heard it mentioned during her time in the
office. She said that she was told she didn't need to know anything
about it.
5. Wildberry
Mrs Williams did not know of a company called Wildberry.
6. Immigration cases
Mrs Williams said there were a lot of files marked
as SF (meaning special friends) of which BJ had stored several
upstairs under lock and key. There was one large and one small
cabinet, which was, marked OS (meaning outsiders). She said she
could not understand why Mr Vaz had taken on so many outsiders
when Members of Parliament usually only assist constituents in
their own constituencies. During her time in the office she received
at least a dozen phone calls from people who do not live in the
Leicester East constituency wanting Mr Vaz to help them. Every
time she brought this matter to BJ's attention BJ would ask Mrs
Williams to type up a polite letter quoting the Parliamentary
rules to the constituent and then a further letter to their MP
stating that Mr Vaz's office had received a telephone call from
one of their constituents and asking if they could look into this
matter.
Mrs Williams' further concerns were that —
· she was very concerned
when she had calls from a couple of students wanting to shadow
Mr Vaz and she was told that Keith Vaz does not take on students.
Then some time later in 1999 she was given a box file from BJ
containing what looked like records of students who had been accepted
by Mr Vaz as volunteers and she was told to destroy everyone by
ripping them into tiny pieces
· she had come across development plans
for building Temples which were addressed to Mr Vaz and Mr Vaz
forwarded them onto the Asian community.
7. I asked Mrs Williams why she left the voluntary
job working for Mr Vaz. She said that she was concerned about
a number of things "going on in the office". She was
concerned about the secrecy. There were many things going on in
the office which she was told she did not need to know anything
about. She was concerned about the practice of signing letters
with a non-existent person's name, Sally Walker. Although she
was told that this was done to protect workers from problems with
constituents, she was unhappy about this practice. She was concerned
about the use of 146 Uppingham Road for storage. This property
was used to put up students and helpers from London and for storing
things. For example, when receptions were organised, the drink
and other items left over would be stored in that premises and
then distributed to people who worked in the office. Mrs Williams
felt that this was not right. Mrs Williams was particularly angry
when her husband has been booked in to see Mr Vaz as a constituent
to consult about Library closures in the area and was told that
his appointment was to be cancelled in favour of somebody whose
problem was more urgent. Mrs Williams felt this was not the correct
way to treat her or her husband. Mrs Williams therefore resigned
as a volunteer worker.
I said that, when I had written a file note on our
conversation, I would send it to Mrs Williams for her to correct
so that I had an accurate record of what she felt I should know.
Mrs Williams asked me about the procedure and I explained the
procedures relating to my enquiries and the role of the Standards
and Privileges Committee. Mrs Williams said she would check the
note and return it to me. I thanked Mrs Williams for the help
that she had provided.
Signed as a correct record [Mrs P E Williams]
14 August 2001
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