Keith Vaz was invited to a party at the Jungle Club recently. Another club attendee decided to commemorate his career achievements…

Guido is reliably informed the man was sober when he did this. Vaz clearly wasn’t over the moon-ing…

Today’s suspension of the Leicester East CLP couldn’t have come at a better time for Keith Vaz, as just this week, one of his close allies launched a new Leicester political party. Rita Patel, who twice failed in her attempt to oust Labour Mayor and Vaz enemy Peter Soulsby, is back with a vengeance, as the former Labour councillor announced the launch of her One Leicester party this Tuesday. Rita previously tried to abolish the Leicester mayoralty from inside the council, before standing (and losing) as an independent in May’s local elections. Her campaign against Soulsby, who himself has a “long history of quite a difficult relationship“ with Keith Vaz, quickly led locals to dub her the “Keith Vaz Party” candidate. Now that Vaz has lost his local Labour party, this might actually be the new Keith Vaz Party. Their flagship policy is… you guessed it… abolishing the Leicester mayoralty.

Although Jim Keith is keeping his distance so far, local councillors confirmed to Guido that “there are suspicions” Vaz has been pulling the strings behind his protégé’s latest endeavour. We need to get this party started…

Labour’s National Executive Committee has suspended the Leicester East Constituency Labour Party. The decision was shared in the early hours of the morning, following “concerns” over the local party’s operation. The action is intended to ensure the CLP can “run in line with the party’s rules and procedures and can operate fully, inclusively and democratically.” As a result, all branch meetings will cease until further notice and all CLP officers have been removed of their posts pending investigation. Co-conspirators won’t need reminding that Leicester East is home to Labour Independent MP Claudia Webbe, and a certain Keith Vaz remains heavily involved with local politics. That’s one less party for Vaz.

Peter Soulsby has once again been re-elected as Labour’s Mayor of Leicester with a vote share of 39.3%. Rita Patel, the former Labour councillor who stood as an independent against him, came fourth on 8.9%. Patel was one of several councillors who organised a plot to oust Soulsby at a special meeting of Leicester City Council, only to fail and lose the whip. Now she’s lost again…

This will be yet another blow for Keith Vaz, who is alleged to have backed the anti-Soulsby campaign by encouraging Patel to stand. Her candidacy was dubbed by locals as the launch of “the Keith Vaz Independent Party“. All part of Vaz’s ongoing personal feud with Soulsby…

Unfortunately for Keith, it failed. The party’s over…

A turf war has broken out over in Leicester ahead of the local elections, with Keith Vaz once again accused of leading the charge. The row is focused on the city’s mayoral election, with Labour incumbent Sir Peter Soulsby standing again after surviving an attempted plot to scrap the role entirely last month. The plot was led by then-Labour councillor Rita Patel, who backed a motion to ditch the mayoralty at a special meeting of Leicester City Council. She and several other rebellious Labour councillors were accused of trying to “embarrass the party” and subsequently lost the whip. Now Patel herself is standing as an independent against Soulsby… just to scrap the job if she wins.

Where’s Keith Vaz in all of this? Locals are accusing the former Labour MP of orchestrating the rebellion and throwing his weight behind “protégé” Patel’s campaign, owing to a longstanding personal grudge he holds against Soulsby. One source tells Guido they’re now known as The Keith Vaz Party…

“Rita is now leading a bunch of Labour rejects who are calling themselves the independent party, but locally they are known as the ‘Keith Vaz Party’ and their slogan is “let’s get the party started”.

Another leaflet doing the rounds this week accuses Labour of “removing all Hindu councillors” and being an “anti-Indian Party”…

Vaz’s feud with Soulsby goes back decades, with Soulsby telling the Standards Committee in 2000 the pair had “a long history of quite a difficult relationship“, and later even that they had “a different attitude as to what is true“:

“…We have a very different view about what is proper in public life, and how one ought to behave, and a different attitude as to what is true and what is not. That has inevitably led to us falling out a number of times over the years. That is not a vendetta; that is a difference in personality and attitude.”

An ally of Rita Patel told Guido “Keith has been involved in local politics for a while“, although they refused to comment on his more recent machinations. There ain’t no party like a Keith Vaz party…

Co-conspirators will recall a Leicester City Council candidate resting heavily on the endorsement of Keith “call me Jim” Vaz. In news that will shock few, Keith’s endorsement didn’t go down well with voters. Labour lost the previously safe seat of North Evington by a stonking 27% margin, with the winning Conservative candidate seeing a 32% gain in vote share. Considering the national context, that’s quite the result for the Tories…

An awkward and little reported dimension to the vote is that some on the ground say that Hindu voters are increasingly leaning Tory as the Muslim vote goes to Labour. What’s more, Keith didn’t just endorse the candidate; he took an active role in the campaign. A local source tells Guido that Vaz was out on the doorstep regularly, adding “his influence is shot to ribbons”. Neighbouring MP Andrew Bridgen was quick to reach a similar conclusion, saying the result showed the people of Leicester East had “finally had enough” of Keith. Better late than never…