Labour MP Keith Vaz RESIGNS as chair of Home Affairs Select Committee

In a statement the married father-of-two said: “I am genuinely sorry that recent events make it impossible for this to happen if I remain Chair”.

He added: “I don’t think now is the appropriate time to start talking about he is going to the new chair of the select committee”.

Mr Loughton, who is now the longest serving Conservative on the committee, said: “Keith Vaz came to the meeting of the select committee”.

Labour MP Kate Hoey has said it would be in the interests of Mr Vaz and Parliament as a whole for him to leave the committee completely.

He said the decision to resign and stand aside immediately from the committee’s business was “my decision, and mine alone” and “my first consideration has been the effect of recent events on my family”. I am immeasurably proud of the work the committee has undertaken over the last nine years, and I am privileged to have been the longest serving chair of this committee.

A new chair of the Home Affairs Committee, who will have to be a Labour MP, will be chosen within weeks.

The party could now face a battle over Mr Vaz’s post on its ruling body the National Executive Committee.

During his address to MPs on the committee, Mr Vaz did not apologise for his behaviour, but said sorry that the statement had been released earlier than he had planned. “What has been exposed through the papers meant he was fatally compromised to continue as chair”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party would “look at” allegations against one of its most high-profile MPs.

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, who represents the neighbouring North West Leicestershire constituency, was set to write to Scotland Yard, the Charity Commission and the Commons’ standards watchdog calling on them to investigate the allegations.

“It is in the best interest of the Home Affairs Select Committee that its important work can be conducted without any distractions whatsoever”.

Interim chairman Tory MP Tim Loughton said fellow members listened to the outgoing chairman in “sadness”.

Speaking during a visit to China, Mrs May said: “What Keith does is for Keith and any decisions he wishes to make are for him”.

“The integrity of the Select Committee system matters to me”.

The Sunday Mirror published pictures and audio recordings of a meeting with the escorts, along with details of text messages that Vaz apparently exchanged with them.

On his way to meet senior committee members behind closed doors, he was asked by Sky’s Robert Nisbet whether he would be prepared to talk the media afterwards.