An annual event organised by Keith Vaz to celebrate racial diversity in the Labour party has been cancelled.
The former home affairs committee chair, who resigned over sex allegations, called off Diversity Nite a week and a half ago, according to staff at the Eastzeast restaurant in Liverpool, close to the party’s annual conference.
The event has became famous for giving Vaz the opportunity to be photographed dancing a bhangra with ministers or shadow ministers wearing fixed grins.
In recent years, he has been photographed with Ed Balls on a brightly lit dancefloor, a precursor to the former shadow chancellor’s entrance on Strictly Come Dancing.
Vaz was caught last month in a tabloid sting allegedly using the services of sex workers at the same time as his committee was investigating prostitution.
Under intense media scrutiny and at the centre of Leicestershire police inquiries, he has not attended the conference. However, friends insist the event will be held again in the future.
At the restaurant last night, a party promoting Labour’s links with the US took place on the top floor, where Vaz’s event had been held in previous years.
Staff at the restaurant said the cancellation had cost the venue some takings but added that cancellations are part of the restaurant business.
