MPs let off ‘Mr and Mrs Expenses’ with a £1,500 payback

Allowance: Alan and Ann Keen
12 April 2012

Two London Labour MPs dubbed "Mr and Mrs Expenses" were today cleared of personally pocketing taxpayers' cash despite a damning verdict by an anti-sleaze watchdog.

Health Minister Ann Keen and her husband Alan were found by the parliamentary commissioner for
standards John Lyon to have made a "serious misjudgment" over their £36,000-a-year claim for a second home allowance.

The pair, who both have west London constituencies just a short commute from the Commons, continued to claim expenses for a Westminster flat even though their "main home" was boarded up.

However, the Keens were told to pay back just £1,500 after the Labour-dominated standards and privileges committee found that there were "very significant mitigating factors".

In a move that will infuriate campaigners, the committee of MPs decided that the couple should not be heavily penalised because their claims had been signed off by parliamentary officials.

The MPs said there was a "lack of evidence" that the Keens had intended to make personal financial gain from their arrangements.

The committee did agree with Mr Lyon that the couple had been in breach of Commons rules because for four months last year they "claimed allowances for a second home when they only had one home available".

The verdict on the Keens came as four parliamentarians headed for court on charges of false accounting. Three Labour MPs and one Tory peer were all appearing at Westminster magistrates' court.

In a separate development, Labour MP Harry Cohen was also reported to be under investigation by the Met over his £70,000 claim.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in