Vaz served as the Minister for Europe between October and June He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in June He was Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee from July , but resigned from this role on 6 September after the Sunday Mirror revealed he had engaged in unprotected sexual activity with male sex workers and had said he would pay for cocaine if they wished to use it. At the end of October , Vaz was appointed to the Justice Select Committee ; a parliamentary vote to block his appointment was defeated.
Vaz's father took his own life when Vaz was She was elected to Leicester City Council as a Labour councillor and served on the council for 14 years.
Before his political career, Vaz was a practising solicitor. In , he was employed as a solicitor to Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council ; and later as a senior solicitor to the London Borough of Islington. He was selected as the prospective Labour candidate for the Leicester East constituency in He remained in this role until his election to Parliament in Vaz has been a Labour party member since In , Vaz stood in the general election as the Labour candidate in the Conservative-Liberal marginal Richmond and Barnes constituency, coming third with a swing away from Labour of 4.
He stood as the Labour candidate in the European Parliament election in for Surrey West , coming third. Vaz was re-elected in majority of 11, , majority of 18, , majority of 13, , majority of 15, , majority of 14, , majority of 18, and majority of 22, Vaz has held a variety of parliamentary posts. Between and , he was a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee , of which he was the chair from July to September In , Vaz was given the role of Shadow Junior Environment Minister with responsibility for planning and regeneration, his first frontbench role.
In , the Race Relations Remedies Bill, which had first been introduced by Vaz, became law with the support of the UK Government, and which allowed unlimited compensation to be given to those who had suffered racial discrimination. He served in this position from October and June Other positions he held included as an elected member of the National Executive Committee and as the vice-chair of Women, Race and Equality Committee of the Labour Party.
