Snouts in the Trough
I didn't know Alan Keen personally - but I'm sure he was a nice enough chap and did lots of good works - like many MPs it has to be said.
But what I remember most about him - and his wife Ann - is that they became known as 'Mr & Mrs Expenses' during the MPs expenses scandal - which shocked the whole nation down to its little cotton socks - for a while at least.
The extent to which Westminster MPs had their noses in the trough - was surpising and deplorable in equal measure - their sense of entitlement to public money seemed to know no bounds.
Fancy household goods, dog food, floating duck houses second home flipping - were all claimed in support of MPs doing their jobs more effectively - as honourable members drove a large coach and horses through their own expenses 'rules'.
And none were more notorious than Alan Keen and his wife Ann - as neighbouring Labour MPs in London - here's what the Telgraph newspaper said at the time:
"The Keens worked together effectively for their constituents, he from 1992, she from 1997 until her defeat in last year’s election.
But they became known as “Mr & Mrs Expenses” when The Daily Telegraph disclosed in 2009 that they had claimed almost £1.7 million in total expenses over seven years – having bought a flat across the river from the Commons despite their home at Brentford being less than 10 miles away.
Keen’s family connections at Westminster were unique. Not only was his wife an MP; but so was his sister-in-law Sylvia Heal, who rose to be deputy Speaker. But when the expenses scandal broke, such links proved controversial, the more so as Alan Keen — vice-chairman of the All-Party Group Against Financial Exploitation — had voted in 2008 against the reform of expenses (though the couple had also called for MPs’ expenses to be made public).
Alan and Ann Keen — despite living in a neighbourhood from which another MP commuted to Westminster — combined their second homes allowances in 2002 to buy the apartment at Waterloo.
They claimed for interest payments on it and for remortgaging their home (including an element for life insurance) and tried to claim for council tax on the flat. The parliamentary Fees Office agreed that both mortgages were claimable.
After the Telegraph reported that the Keens had claimed £175,000 over five years for accommodation and almost £1.7 million in total expenses over seven years, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards ruled that they had made a “serious” breach of the rules involving “significant public funds”, and ordered them to repay £5,678.
The Standards and Privileges Committee reduced this to £1,500 because the claims had been approved. In the wake of the disclosures, there were several arson attacks on Ann Keen’s constituency office; squatters, discovering that the Keens’ Brentford house had been vacant for nearly a year following a dispute with builders undertaking renovation work, moved in. They claimed that they wanted to turn it into a centre for war refugees, in protest at Ann Keen having voted for the Iraq War."
According to reports the fancy apartment in Waterloo (just 10 minutes walk from Westminster) - cost the couple around £500,000 - which the two MPs' claimed on their second home allowance - despite their 'real' family home being only half an hour (or 10 miles) away in Brentford.
And despite the fact that this property was bought and subidised with public money - MPs get to keep the asset as their personal property - the public purse gets no return.
The sense of entitlement that permeated the whole House of Commons during this period - simply beggars belief - both then and now.
And the ironic thing is that it was the press that flushed things out into the open - not one single MP stood up to condemn what was going on.
In fact quite the opposite - because many of them tried desperately to cover things up.
