British-Indian MP causes Twitter frenzy by deleting account

London: Keith Vaz, Britain’s longest serving Indian-origin MP, caused a social media frenzy when he took down his Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Vaz, who chairs the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee and is extremely active online, quickly stepped in to quash speculation over his social media disappearance.

“The account is being refurbished with new pictures and a profile for example, but we’ve created a new account in the meantime, and we’re trying to get Twitter to verify that,” said a spokesperson for Vaz, who has just returned from a visit to Goa – his home state.

Earlier this week, he met Goa chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and invited him to visit the UK and suggested that a major event be held in the state as part of the 2017 UK-India Year of Culture.

The disappearance of his social media accounts yesterday led some to speculate is a newspaper was planning a story about Vaz.

Others wondered if Vaz had been driven off as a result of abusive messages.

But it seems the Leicester East MP for the Labour party is just going through a New Year makeover.

“Back in the UK to find @jeremycorbyn has reshuffled, parts of the country have flooded and Foxes no longer top. Must not leave again,” the minister tweeted from his new temporary account.

Jeremy Corbyn, the surprise winner of Labour’s leadership election last year, has been at the centre of a prolonged controversy since last week as he mulled over a reshuffle, which ended with the firing of shadow culture secretary Michael Duhger and shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden.

Shadow railways minister Jonathan Reynolds, shadow foreign affairs minister Stephen Doughty and shadow minister for the armed forces Kevan Jones resigned in protest over the sackings.