Former Labour MP Keith Vaz has made a return to politics just weeks after quitting Parliament over a drugs and prostitutes controversy, it was revealed today.

He has taken over as chairman of the Constituency Labour Party (CLP) in his former Leicester East seat after he was replaced by a hardline Corbynista for December's general election.

But the move, approved at a rowdy meeting on Tuesday night, sparked an outcry and accusations that he was lining up a return to the Commons.

Mr Vaz, 63, did not run in his former Leicester East seat in the December 12 general election, having been handed a six-month suspension from the Commons after he was caught offering to buy Class A drugs for male sex workers.

The former Europe minister was found by the House of Commons Standards Committee last year to have committed a 'very serious breach' of code of conduct for MPs.

North West Leicestershire Tory MP Andrew Bidgen said: 'I believe Keith Vaz has been an malign influence on our local and national politics for far too long.

'It is unbelievable given the parliamentary standards ruling that the Labour Party consider him fit to hold the position of association chairman.

'Leicester deserves better than this.'

Mr Vaz, 63, was handed a six-month suspension from the Commons after he was caught offering to buy Class A drugs for male sex workers

John Thomas (right), a former CLP chairman and ally of Mr Vaz, said that the local party was 'in chaos' after the departure of Mr Vaz (left)

John Thomas, a former CLP chairman and ally of Mr Vaz, said that the local party was 'in chaos' amid disquiet over the view of new MP Claudia Webbe, who took the seat in December with a much reduced majority.

'The new MP is a Corbyn supporter but the party in Leicester is much more to the right. Keith knows the people here,' he told the Guardian.

Mr Vaz has refused to go quietly into the night after his departure from the Commons.

Earlier this month he returned to Westminster to play a role in shaping the upcoming Labour leadership battle.

He attended a meeting of the party's ruling National Executive Committee that decided the rules and format of the battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn.

He is understood to have retained his seat on the NEC as a representative of ethnic minority party members.

Married with two children, Vaz, who was born in Aden to a family from Goa, was the MP for the central England seat of Leicester East from 1987 to last year.

The Sunday Mirror reported in September 2016 that Vaz, posing as an industrial washing machine salesman called Jim, invited two male prostitutes into his flat to engage in paid-for sex and offered to pay for cocaine for another man to use.

The standards committee said his explanation that the men were there to discuss redecorating the London flat, and that he may have been given a 'spiked drink', was 'not believable and, indeed, ludicrous'.

Ms Webbe, a controversial supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, retained the seat for Labour (pictured). But her 6,019 majority was down from the 22,428 achieved by Mr Vaz in 2017

'I found Mr Vaz's account of the events that led to the media reports incredible,' said Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, in October.

'I found his reason for being unable to assist me fully with my inquiry implausible.'

Mr Vaz was suspended from Parliament for six months on October 31 but because of the dissolution for the election he could have dodged his punishment if he was re-elected.

Instead he announced in November that he would not stand, saying: 'I have decided to retire after completing 32 years as the member of parliament for Leicester East.

In that time I have won eight general elections. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve my constituency since I came to the city in 1985.'

He was replaced as a candidate by Ms Webbe, a controversial supporter of Jeremy Corbyn who retained the seat for Labour.

But her 6,019 majority was down from the 22,428 achieved by Mr Vaz in 2017.