Vaz faces damaging new claims

Former Foreign Office Minister Keith Vaz faces potentially damaging new claims that he may have received a payment from a rich businessman who is wanted for questioning in France over his alleged role in a multi-million pound corruption scandal.

The Observer has learnt that former Tory Minister Tom Sackville has given an startling statement to the parliamentary standards watchdog, Elizabeth Filkin, regarding Vaz's links to Iraqi-born tycoon Nadhmi Auchi, Britain's seventh richest man.

Sackville claims that while he was a director of a private German bank controlled by Auchi, he believed that Vaz, either directly or indirectly, received a payment from the billionaire.

Sackville said: 'I have a distinct recollection that during the period between September 1997 and September 1998 Auchi made a payment to some entity connected with Keith Vaz... It may have been to him, to his constituency, to a newsletter or some other type of publication.'

It is now clear Filkin's inquiry into Vaz - passed to the Standards and Privileges Committee last week - goes far wider than previously thought. It was originally launched after claims that the former Foreign Office Minister failed to disclose details of a financial link with the billionaire Hinduja brothers. It now stretches into his relationship with Auchi.

Vaz was a director of one of Auchi's companies for a brief period in 1999 and resigned when Tony Blair made him a Minister. But Vaz has never declared any payments from Auchi in the House of Commons register of members' interests. It is unclear from Sackville's statement whether Auchi's alleged payment would have required Vaz to declare it under parliamentary rules. If not, Filkin would not be able to criticise the payment. Sackville gave evidence to Filkin as part of her latest investigation into the financial affairs of Vaz.

Filkin's supporters believe her investigation of Vaz was one of the reasons she was not offered a second term as parliamentary commissioner.

In her letter to the Speaker Michael Martin, Filkin is thought to have blamed Vaz as one of the culprits behind the whispering campaign against her.

Vaz has dismissed Sackville's allegations and refused to comment on Filkin's report before it was published.

antony.barnett@observer.co.uk martin.bright@observer.co.uk