Labour couple exposed in life insurance scandal
Alison Little Deputy Political Editor
A LABOUR health minister and her MP husband took out a £430,000 life insurance policy as part of a property deal and wanted the taxpayer to fund  the £857-a-month premiums.
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The revelation about claims by Ann and Alan Keen prompted new criticism of how some MPs have treated Westminster’s expenses system.

The issue may also pain Gordon Brown, as Mrs Keen was his unpaid parliamentary aide when he was Chancellor.

Mark Wallace of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Time and again, it seems MPs charge living costs rather than work costs. This is a world away from the idea MPs’ expenses are essential to them to represent their constituents properly.

“It’s time they stopped hitching an easy ride on the taxpayer.”

The Keens had already been dubbed Mr and Mrs Expenses over the years.

On Friday, after House of Commons authorities finally gave up their battle to stop publication, detailed expense claims and receipts submitted by 14 MPs, including the Keens, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and David Cameron, were released.

As MPs, the Keens each get a salary of about £60,000 a year plus expenses, with Mrs Keen receiving about £30,000-a-year extra salary for being a minister.

Their expense claim details showed how the couple used two mortgages and more than £100,000 of public funds to help pay for a smart central London flat, although their family home is less than 10 miles away.

They funded its purchase in May 2002 with a mortgage on the flat and an extra loan on their family home in west London, then claimed back interest payments for both mortgages on their Parliamentary expenses.

The documents showed that each claimed £1,643.50 a month for what they described on their claim forms as “flat expenses, as agreed”.

The papers also revealed details of a “joint life first death” insurance policy taken out with a mortgage, costing £867.57 a month, which they expected to be funded by the taxpayer.

Documents submitted to House authorities by the couple in 2002 described it as “compulsory insurance” which they had had to take out because of “age/health etc”.

In 2002, they provided a “schedule of annual costs” to be claimed against their “additional costs allowance”, including mortgage interest, insurance, service charge, ground rent and estimated fuel, Band G council tax and cleaning bills, totalling £41,485.88.

It was not immediately clear from the documents exactly which claims, including the life insurance premiums, were approved but there was evidence that Parliamentary officials had to ask the couple for more detail to support their £1,643.50-a-month each claim.

In 2003, a year after the Keens’ transaction, MPs were banned from using expenses to pay life insurance premiums.

Mrs Keen, 59, has been MP for the west London seat of Brentford and Isleworth since 1997. Husband Alan, 70, has been MP for neighbouring Feltham and Heston since 1992.

The Additional Costs Allowance is designed to help MPs with constituencies away from Westminster who need two homes in order to carry out their duties at Parliament.

There is no suggestion that the Keens broke any rules but correspondence between the Keens and the Commons authorities provides some fascinating insights.

In one letter in May 2004, the couple – in reference to their Additional Costs Allowance claim for the six months to March 31, 2004 – stressed that they had always submitted full details and supporting documents for previous claims.

They accordingly attached statements to back up their latest claim, although they admitted they could not find the council tax demand for the year and had calculated it by taking their monthly payments from bank statements and dividing by two.