Sushma Swaraj row: UK rules out probing Vaz over complaint about helping Lalit Modi

LONDON: Indian-origin Labour MP Keith Vaz, who is embroiled in a major row involving External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over helping scam-tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi to obtain British travel documents, will not be probed in Britain for a complaint in this regard.

Kathryn Hudson, Britain's Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, has decided not to investigate the complaint against Vaz that he helped Modi get travel documents to go to Portugal, purportedly for his wife's cancer treatment in June last year.

"The Commissioner received a complaint (against Keith Vaz) last week, but has decided not to investigate into it," a spokeswoman for the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards told today.

According to British media which quoted leaked emails, Vaz cited External Affairs Minister Swaraj's name to put pressure on UK's top immigration official to grant British travel papers to Modi, who subsequently got the documents in less than 24 hours.

Vaz, 58, declined to comment today on the decision of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, saying "I am saying nothing."

After the reports surfaced, 63-year-old Swaraj said in a series of tweets that she had taken a "humanitarian view" and conveyed to the British High Commissioner that they should examine Modi's request as per their rules and "if the British government chooses to give travel documents to Lalit Modi -- that will not spoil our bilateral relations".