Keith Vaz resigns as chairman of Select Committee following escort allegations

Keith Vaz has returned to work in the House of Commons less than 24 hours after claims he paid two male escorts for sex.

Carrying on as if nothing had happened, the Labour MP arrived in the chamber around 15 minutes into Home Office question time taking his usual seat on the backbench.

He asked a question to Home Secretary Amber Rudd and later about the UK's plans to help with the humanitarian situation in Yemen - which is where he was born.

While Mr Vaz appeared calm and made no mention of any issues surrounding him when he spoke in the House of Commons, his MP sister's face told a different story.

Vaz, a married father-of-two, is facing a possible investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after the male escort story appeared in the Sunday Mirror.

He indicated he will stand aside as chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee at a meeting on Tuesday.

It comes after he publicly apologised to his wife and children for the "hurt and distress" he caused them.

People must be able to have "confidence" in their politicians, Theresa May has said in response to the allegations surrounding Keith Vaz.

The Prime Minister said MPs have a duty to their constituents but stressed that decisions on his future were a matter for Mr Vaz.

She said:

Asked if Leicester East MP Keith Vaz Vaz should quit as chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, committee member Chuka Umunna told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:

Mr Umunna said the committee members would need to "collectively come to a view" on Mr Vaz's position when they meet on Tuesday.

An inquiry into the way prostitution is treated in law led by Keith Vaz should be abandoned following allegations he paid for the services of male escorts, a campaign group has said.

Nordic Model Now (NMN) said the claims, made in the Sunday Mirror, amounted to a conflict of interest.

NMN advocates decriminalising prostitutes themselves and making buying sex a criminal offence.

The group has previously voiced opposition to an interim report by the Home Affairs Select Committee, which is leading the Prostitution Inquiry, over recommendations solicitation and sharing of premises by sex workers should be legalised.

NMN said the inquiry should now be disbanded and reformed with members obliged to declare any history of purchasing sex, as well as a mandatory 50 per cent of members being female.

Mr Vaz has called the report by the Sunday Mirror "deeply troubling".

• Read: MP Keith Vaz 'paid for male escorts', paper claims