Keith Vaz and G4S

Last July the BBC reported that: “A £230m outsourcing deal between security firm G4S and Lincolnshire Police will be ‘closely monitored’ by the Home Affairs Select Committee. Chairman Keith Vaz said the committee is keeping an eye on the contract with G4S, which is under fire for a separate deal to provide staff for the Olympics.”

Labour MP for Leicester East Keith Vaz however has a strange way of keeping an eye on G4S, as just a few months ago he provided G4S with a public relations coup when he “joined G4S Chief Executive Nick Buckles on a tour of the Leicester company’s factory near Braunstone” following their receipt of a major contract award to provide tagging devices for the French Ministry of Justice.

During the visit, Keith was able to see first hand the manufacturing process at G4S Monitoring Technologies, part of G4S which is responsible for the manufacture of electronic monitoring — or ‘tagging’- equipment, used to monitor more than 50,000 offenders in over 15 countries.

Mr Vaz now appears to have awoken from his corporate-induced stupor and his fiery rhetoric has been revived in the wake of the ongoing G4S scandal, with him reportedly saying: “G4S and Serco have let the country down and therefore all their contracts should be audited immediately.”

That seems like an eminently good idea; and while Mr Vaz is at it he might consider kicking G4S out of the education system here in Leicester (see “Ejecting G4S From Leicester Schools”).