Alan Keen's son to lose job under Christopher Kelly's reforms
Paul Teed
Alan Keen MP faces watching his constituency manager son lose his job under new expenses proposals.
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Richmond and Twickenham Times
David Keen has worked full-time in his father’s Feltham office for the past eight years, with his duties including handling casework and organising advice surgeries.

But an independent inquiry led by Sir Christopher Kelly is expected to say next week that all MPs who employ relatives should be stopped from doing so.

Mr Keen, MP for Feltham and Heston, said he was reluctant to comment about the proposals until they are published.

He said: “There could be 15 different alternatives, I could be really angry, I might be cross and I might not be cross.”

Mr Keen has refused to reveal his son’s salary, but insisted it was within the correct parliamentary pay scale for his job.

The proposals by the committee on standards in public life would see wide-ranging cuts to MPs’ expenses, which would be phased in over five years.

They reportedly include stopping MPs living within an hour's journey of London claiming for a second home.

But Mr Keen said he and his wife Ann Keen, MP for Brentford and Isleworth, will already be prevented from claiming for their Thames-side flat under different proposals.

He said: “The additional cost allowance, what you call the second home allowance, for outer London MPs has already halved this fiscal year and ends completely next March.

“As an outer London MP I wouldn’t qualify for that from April 1 next year at all.

“It’s absolutely right, I agree with it completely, because the hours have changed and it has been changed to reflect the reduced hours, we don’t have through the night debates like we used to before.”

He added: “If the hours had been like that in 1997 then there would never have been an additional cost allowance for outer London members.”