Heather Brooke thanks the Speaker for ‘making my career’ / Alan Keen update
Judith Townend
In her latest blog post, Heather Brooke, FoI specialist and campaigining journalist, links to today’s Guardian G2 feature, in which she describes her role in the MPs’ expenses saga, and…
Editors Blog | Journalism.co.uk
In her latest blog post, Heather Brooke, FoI specialist and campaigining journalist, links to today’s Guardian G2 feature, in which she describes her role in the MPs’ expenses saga, and asks:

“Is this the apex of my campaign? My 15 minutes of fame might now be coming to a close if the Commons actually comes clean, gets rid of the corrupt and institutes a new transparency regime. That actually looks as though it might now happen. I’m in such a generous mood I feel I ought to invite Speaker Michael Martin out to lunch just to say ‘thanks for making my career.’ I couldn’t have done this without him.”

Following yesterday’s post on this blog, which noted Heather Brooke’s amusement at Alan Keen’s speculative questions about her background during a select committee session on press standards, libel and privacy in April 2009 and Brooke’s own update on the Keens, this article comes from the Telegraph today:

“Alan and Ann Keen, the husband and wife Labour MPs, claimed almost £40,000 a year on a central London flat although their family home was less than 10 miles away,” Holly Watt reports.

“(…)Mrs Keen is a junior health minister. Nicknamed ‘Mr and Mrs Expenses’ by the press prior to The Daily Telegraph’s investigation, the two MPs have been married since 1980 and represent neighbouring constituencies…”