I am very concerned and surprised with MP Alan Keen's comments in the article in the Chronicle May 22 regarding the debate over illegal extensions.

He states that blind eyes have been turned by the council when he was a councillor in favour of the Punjabi community when it came to illegal extensions.

He also suggests that the council was colluding with this ethnic group in order, in part, to save money on the cost to the council of putting their elderly relatives into old people's homes. If this was the case, why did he not intervene as these practices appear to be acts of racism and corruption?

I can only conclude that his desire to further his political career at the time would have been put in danger if he had blown the whistle. After all, he relies heavily on the Asian community to keep him in office.

I, for one, am glad something is being done to rectify the situation under the present administration.

Unfortunately, we do not hear that much from Alan Keen on local issues. If this is the best he can do, I can see the Labour Party going the same way as the Conservatives did some years ago - next stop oblivion.

IAN WESTOLL Belgrave Road, Hounslow.