Former Europe minister Keith Vaz is facing calls for his expulsion from the Commons, according to reports.

The Independent on Sunday discloses that the Standards and Privileges Committee is to recommend that Vaz be banned from the Commons for failing to cooperate with an investigation into his financial conduct.

MPs on the powerful Commons committee are set to call for the suspension following criticism of Vaz by the out-going parliamentary standards commissioner, Elizabeth Filkin, for his failure to cooperate with an investigation into his financial relationships.

Suspension is the most serious disciplinary move that the Commons can take. Vaz, the Labour MP for Leicester East, denies all allegations of wrong doing.

But if Filkin's position is backed by the committee then it will be seen as a successful parting shot by the sleaze watchdog who has been criticised by some MPs for her "overzealous" conduct of investigations.

In return, Filkin has condemned unnamed ministers and MPs for seeking to undermine her. While she has not named Vaz, other newspaper reports have accused him of conducting a "whispering campaign" against Filkin during her investigation of him.