UK NEWS

SQUATTERS TAKE OVER KEEN HOUSEHOLD

KEPT OUT: Ann Keen

Sunday June 28,2009

By Jason Groves

SQUATTERS have moved into the constituency home of married Labour MPs Ann and Alan Keen in protest at their “outrageous” expenses claims.

The group of 10 squatters occupied the £385,000 house in Brentford, west London, after reading reports about the couple dubbed “Mr and Mrs Expenses”.

Last week the Sunday Express revealed the home had not been occupied for up to a year following a dispute with builders. By designating it their main home, where they spend the most nights, Mr and Mrs Keen are able to claim up to £40,000 a year in expenses on their £750,000 “second home”, a flat nine miles away in Westminster.

Yesterday the squatters hung a large banner from the front of the house saying simply: “Reclaiming your taxes.”

The leader of the squatters, who identified himself as “Davey”, told the Sunday Express he had been angered by the lavish expense claims submitted by the couple.

He said: “We are all local to the area and we have been following the stories about their outrageous expenses for a while. Ann Keen is our MP. When we read that the place was empty we decided to squat it as a protest. We are going to live here.

“They are taking the Mickey with their expenses claims. It’s obvious that no one has lived here for months, if not years. There is no furniture in the house and the water and electric are turned off. It is barely liveable, even as a squat.

“We are also protesting at Mrs Keen’s support for the Iraq War and would like to open the place up to offer accommodation to any Iraqi refugees.”

From the outside, Mr and Mrs Keen’s home is a pleasant brick-built, three-bedroom Victorian end-of-terrace house on a quiet suburban street.

Photographs taken by the squatters yesterday suggest a very different story inside. Litter and rubble are strewn across the surfaces of the fitted kitchen. By contrast, the Keens’ “second home” is in a riverside complex with its own swimming pool. In the past four years the couple have billed taxpayers £137,679 for the flat’s upkeep. Under Commons rules they can claim the money only by declaring that they spend most nights at their home in Brentford.