MPs' expenses: Labour's Ann and Alan Keen ordered to repay £1,500
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Benedict Smith Our Foreign Staff Neil Johnston Adam Mawardi Gwyn Wright
Married Labour MPs Ann and Alan Keen have been ordered to repay £1,500 in expenses claimed for running a second home where they were actually living full-time.
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The Telegraph
The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee found the couple had been wrong to keep claiming parliamentary expenses allowances even though they had only one habitable home.

But it said the rule breach was ''significantly mitigated'' because the arrangement was authorised by Commons officials, and they had not been trying to profit.

The committee said: ''We conclude that Mr and Mrs Keen were in breach of the rules of the House because for a period of four months they claimed allowances for a second home when they only had one home available to them.

''This breach is significantly mitigated in our view by the approval given by the Department of Resources, by the lack of any evidence that Mr and Mrs Keen intended to procure for themselves a personal benefit, and by very difficult circumstances beyond their control.''

However, the committee of MPs took the unusual step of disagreeing with his findings and slashing the repayment, insisting that "in the exceptional circumstances of this case we take a more lenient view".

Renovations at the couple's home in Mrs Keen's constituency of Brentford and Isleworth, a short commute from parliament, started in May 2008.

However, following disputes with builders, the work stalled and the house was boarded up in December.

The MPs lived full-time in their Westminster property for the next 11 months, but continued to designate it as their second home and claim expenses.

Within days the house was occupied by squatters protesting against the way the pair were getting taxpayers' money.

According to the report, Mr and Mrs Keen did ask the Commons Department of Resources for advice on the arrangement in May last year, and were told that the "exceptional circumstances" meant they were still entitled to allowances.

But Mr Lyon insisted 11 months was "too long" for them to have reasonably kept claiming.

"While this is a matter of judgment, my judgment is that by June 2009 they had been out of their Brentford home for too long for it to have continued to be considered their main home for allowance purposes.

"They had by then been out of the property for seven months and the work had yet to re-start.

"The arrival of the squatters was another serious setback, but by then the reasonable leeway had in my view run out."