Vaz failed to declare a link to friend's business

Keith Vaz, the minister for Europe, failed to disclose he was a director of a company financed by an Asian businessman named in the Commons inquiry into his affairs, The Independent has learnt.

The latest revelation over his tangled business affairs leaves an embarrassing new question mark over his judgement.

Mr Vaz, who kept a low profile during the election campaign after being taken ill in March complaining of chest pains, was admitted to hospital on Saturday for fresh tests. He is widely expected to be dismissed today from his job.

Elizabeth Filkin, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, has already decided to open a second inquiry into Mr Vaz's family-run business, Mapesbury Communications, which he has also not declared in the MPs' register.

Accounts obtained from Companies House show that since 1998 the MP for Leicester East has been director of a company which is still trading at an address in north-west London. The Singhvi Foundation is jointly registered as a charity and pays for Indian and British politicians and judges to visit each other's countries.

The foundation relies on funds provided by the Asian millionaire Raj Loomba, the company secretary and a friend of Mr Vaz, to whom Mr Loomba was alleged to have given "substantial financial donations". Although Ms Filkin found no evidence to support this allegation, Mr Vaz was criticised for not co-operating fully with her inquiry.

The Conservative MP for Banbury, Tony Baldry, who is also a director of the foundation, has declared his interest with the company in the members' register.

Ms Filkin is understood to be aware of Mr Vaz's links to the Singhvi Foundation but because no official complaint has been made they remain outside the scope of her inquiry.

Mr Vaz told Ms Filkin's first inquiry that he had no other business interests that required declaring. The MPs' code of conduct stipulates that unremunerated directorships should be registered when they give rise to a material benefit. But the Singhvi Foundation's accounts do not make it clear whether Mr Vaz has received any benefit from his unremunerated directorship.

Last week, an investigation by BBC Radio 4's Today programme discovered that Mr Vaz failed to declare a £300,000 flat in Pimlico, central London, and gave a studio flat in Kennington, south London, to his mother days before he was due to reply to Ms Filkin.

Mr Vaz was unavailable for comment yesterday and there is no listed telephone number for the Singhvi Foundation.