MPs respond to second home critics

5:10pm Wednesday 28th May 2008

Comments (4)   Have your say »

Two Labour MPs have responded to criticism about using expenses to help pay for a second home despite living only 30 minutes from Parliament.

Health Minister Ann Keen, MP for Brentford and Isleworth, and her husband, Alan Keen, who represents Feltham and Heston used £175,000 of taxpayers' cash to pay for a £500,000 Waterloo flat.

Expenses rules allow MPs to spend £23,083 a year to run and pay for a home near the Commons if they live outside inner London.

While Mr and Mrs Keen do reside outside inner London, they share a home in Brentford which is only about 30 minutes away from Parliament by car.

In a statement, the pair said: "We are pleased that the full details of our Additional Costs Allowance claims have finally been released by the House of Commons authorities in response to a Daily Telegraph journalist's Freedom of Information request.

"We voted for the legislation in the House of Commons and would have preferred that the information was released much earlier.

"However, the House of Commons authorities disputed the level of detail that should be released and that was subsequently tested through the legal process.

"What has disappointed us is that the newspapers were not satisfied with printing the facts but, presumably in order to sell more copies, felt it necessary to embellish and twist the truth. We are considering the various ways of addressing that abuse.

"We require this statement to be quoted in full".

The couple bought their flat in May 2002 after spending six months in a London hotel.

They then used two mortgages to pay for it, one loan of £350,000 from HSBC and £170,000 raised by re-mortgaging their Brentford property.

The couple's argument that the second home loan should be permissible on expenses because it was used to raise equity for the central London flat was accepted.

The pair also claimed for compulsory' life insurance premiums attached to the loans.

New rules have since banned MPs from using expenses to claim for life insurance premiums.

Since buying the apartment they have jointly claimed £175,128 under the second homes perk.

The details were among a number released after a three-year freedom of information wrangle in the Commons which saw Speaker Michael Martin unable to prevent publication of a breakdown of MPs' expenses.

The couple have not broken any rules but the MPs' expenses have drawn criticism from some campaign groups.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It's clear that this allowance pays for much more than just a base in London - MPs use it to fund a lifestyle far more comfortable than their constituents enjoy."