Ann Keen has defended her record after becoming the first MP to be sued by a Hounslow constituent for alleged 'laziness'.

War veteran John Taylor, of Estridge Close, Hounslow, is seeking £15,000 damages from the Brentford & Isleworth representative over claims she ignored his repeated appeals for help.

The 83-year-old spent has spent the last decade fighting for compensation from the Government after his conviction for burglary, for which he spent three years behind bars, was overturned in 1998.

He claims to have written to Mrs Keen at least 100 times requesting help but says she has done nothing except forward a response from a fellow MP at the Home Office.

"Ann Keen may have been a very good nurse but she's a rotten MP," he told the Chronicle today.

Mrs Keen branded his claims 'ludicrous and extremely offensive', pointing out that she had dealt with nearly 1,500 pieces of casework in the last year alone.

"I have tried my utmost to help Mr Taylor and this case has been ongoing since I was elected in 1997," she said.

"As recently as last June, I wrote to him to ask his solicitors to contact me if there was anything further I could do."

Mrs Keen was originally ordered to pay Mr Taylor £15,000 by Brentford County Court in December after failing to contest the case within the time limit.

But her lawyers appealed the decision and a hearing is now scheduled for April 29.