Keith Vaz: David Walliams takes swipe at Labour MP after prostitute allegations

The comedian nominates the disgraced Labour MP for best TV personality at the GQ awards

Following mounting pressure to resign, Mr Vaz was forced to stand down as chairman of the influential Home Affairs Committee (Getty)

The scandal has long been the foremost occupational hazard which comes with a life lead in the public eye. Irrespective of how polished your PR machine or how well-connected you are, when a scandal, or an alleged scandal, rears its ugly head, it becomes near impossible to dodge the inevitable onslaught of public jeering and skewering which follows.

Keith Vaz, the Labour MP alleged to have paid for the services of two male escorts, has first-hand experience of the public taunting prominent figures are routinely subject to in such instances. Just last night, the MP for Leicester East became the butt of a joke at the GQ Awards.

David Walliams took a direct swipe at Mr Vaz while presenting the award for best TV personality, joking that one of the people to be nominated was “Keith Vaz for his starring role on the Sunday Mirror website.”

In actual fact, it was British survival expert and presenter Bear Grylls who took the award home.

Following mounting pressure to resign, Mr Vaz was forced to stand down as chairman of the influential Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday after allegations that he paid for sex with two male prostitutes.

The Sunday Mirror reported the married father-of-two met two Eastern European escorts at his north London flat and boasted about having unprotected sex. The 59-year-old allegedly offered to cover the cost of cocaine if it were brought to the flat but refused to have any himself during the encounter. According to the paper, Mr Vaz asked one of the men in a text message sent before the meeting to bring poppers, the sex-enhancing legal high used by gay men, to the meeting.

In a statement announcing his decision to stand down, Mr Vaz did not refer directly to the tabloid story but said: ““Those who hold others to account, must themselves be accountable.”

The chairman of the Leicester East constituency party told The Independent they had “every confidence” in Mr Vaz, describing him as an “excellent MP”.

Throughout his political career, Mr Vaz, the longest-serving British Asian MP, has managed to bounce back from a series of accusations and investigations, gaining him the nickname of “the Teflon MP” and “Keith Vazeline”. He has also been noted for his networking skills and frequently been described as a self-publicist.