If there is one thing the UK’s right-wing press are good at, it’s hounding Labour Party MPs. Yesterday, the loveable Daily Mail broke the news that the anti-games MP, Keith Vaz (who no longer replies to my emails), has been caught using his position as a senior MP to try to help a corrupt lawyer out of legal trouble.

As chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, he used official paper to send a letter to the high court calling the trial of Dean & Dean racist and saying it should be thrown out.

Dean & Dean is being sued for £400,000 by an Airline who were unsuccessfully scammed using over the top legal fees. Shahrokh Mireskandari, the £750 per hour solicitor in the centre of this, has a track record of being a dodgy lawyer. His qualifications as a solicitor have turned out to be all but fraudulent and he is actually unable to practice law in the UK after being suspended last year for “suspected dishonesty and accounting malpractice.”

In the letter Mr. Vaz wrote to the high court he neglected to inform the recipients of his personal connection with Mireskandari (who has showered Vaz with all kinds of gifts), instead calling the treatment of Dean & Dean racist.

We are deeply concerned about the apparent way in which this ethnic-minority firm of solicitors has been dealt with. We have received a number of complaints from community representative authorities about this matter.

Vaz also didn’t clear the letter with the rest of the committee before sending it, even though talking on behalf of them. The letter was co-signed by Labour MP Virendra Sharma, who has since accused Vaz of misleading her over the extend of the personal relationship between Vaz and Mireskandari.

From the Mail’s article (warning: it may make you throw up a little in your mouth);

As usual, the e-mail exchange between the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee and his solicitor friend was flirtatious in tone.

‘Guess who I’ve recommended for Lawyer of the Year?’ teased the Right Hon Keith Vaz MP. ‘You bad boy…’ simpered Dr Shahrokh ‘Sean’ Mireskandari in delighted reply.

‘They were like two lovers in the first flush of romance,’ says a former employee of Mireskandari who was accidentally shown this particular email by his old boss.

Certainly Mireskandari showered the MP with gifts and appreciation. Thanks to the lawyer, the politician enjoyed the best seats at the biggest and most glamorous events around London.

You can read more about the shenanigans in the Guardian, or read a string of child like insults aimed at Vaz in the UK’s favourite comic book, The Sun.

[Thanks Chris!]