Friday February 8, 01:52 PM - Vaz faces parliament ban

LONDON (Reuters) - Parliament's standards watchdog has recommended that former Europe minister Keith Vaz be suspended from the House of Commons for a month for blocking investigations into his financial affairs.

Vaz was sacked by Prime Minister Tony Blair after allegations of improper financial conduct and sharp criticism over his performance at the Foreign Office.

The allegations of sleaze embarrassed Blair's government, which promised on coming to office in 1997 to be "whiter than white", as it fought for re-election in June last year.

After a lengthy investigation, the House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges on Friday upheld a complaint against Vaz for failing to register work outside parliament and said he had failed to cooperate sufficiently over other allegations.

It said 11 complaints had been made against Vaz. Eight were not upheld and two of the other three were not considered serious breaches.

"If that had been all, we would have recommended an apology to the House (of Commons)," the committee said in a report.

"Regrettably two further matters have arisen from the way Mr Vaz responded to the allegations against him...," it added. "We have found that Mr Vaz committed serious breaches of the (MPs) code of conduct and a contempt of the house."

"We recommend that Mr Vaz be suspended from the service of the house for one month," the committee said. The recommendation is likely to be approved by MPs.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2002