The unlikely political resurrection of Keith Vaz

00:00 06:25

Natasha Feroze has narrated this article for you to listen to.

When Keith Vaz announced his ambition to stand as an independent for Leicester East in the general election, no one in my hometown was surprised. Vaz may be a joke nationally, known for a fondness for rent boys. But in Leicester East, he remains something of a local hero. It may seem astonishing to the rest of the country, but it’s quite possible that despite everything, come July, Vaz will make a triumphant return.

An elderly woman lights up
at the mention of his name: ‘He wanted to take my picture!’

Leicester was one of the first British cities to have a majority non-white population and its British Indians are a highly prized voting bloc. They are the country’s largest immigrant group: young, fast-growing and aspirational. For decades, Vaz represented this group’s connection to the Labour party, and when he stood down from the Commons in 2019, there was a drift of Hindus and Muslims away from their left-leaning political roots.

Jeremy Corbyn didn’t help. His vocal support for Kashmir’s independence saw many Hindus fall out of love with Labour, and now the Gaza effect also threatens to chip away at the party’s Muslim support. It’s these issues that the seven candidates in Leicester East are being forced to address when knocking on doors.

Vaz is standing for the One Leicester party and he’ll be going head to head with his successor, the current MP Claudia Webbe. Webbe, like Vaz, is an independent who has a past scandal to contend with. In 2020, she was expelled from the Labour party after she was given a suspended sentence for harassing her ex–boyfriend’s partner. She is vying with Vaz for the Muslim vote and is reportedly in talks with George Galloway’s pro–Palestine party.