In the wake of the MPs expenses scandal an artist and former university lecturer has announced her plan to stand against Ann Keen in the next general election.
If Teresa Vanneck-Surplice’s long-held ambition to run for Parliament comes true, she has promised to listen to Brentford and Isleworth constituents - something she claims Mrs Keen has failed to do.
She said: “I can fight like a terrier if I have to and I would certainly fight over Mogden and the cutting down of trees in Gunnersbury Park.
“I’m not so much taking on Ann as going to help Brentford who had a pretty bad time with her, she’s not at all popular.
“I will listen to my constituents, which they say Ann has not been doing.”
Some readers may already be familiar with Ms Vanneck-Surplice - she made national headlines in 1999 when she told the Marks and Spencer board at an annual meeting that their underwear was “boring”.
And the Richmond Hill art gallery owner swore she would take to task any MP seen to be misbehaving.
“If any of them are doing things I don’t approve of I shall shout,” Ms Vanneck-Surplice said.
“They won’t find me a little pussycat, they will find a lion.”
However, her plan to become a parliamentary candidate may never have become a reality if the expenses scandal, which both Ann and her husband Alan were embroiled in, had not exploded.
The pair claimed more than £130,000 over four years for their Thames-side apartment, despite their main home being less than 10 miles from Westminster.
Ms Vanneck-Surplice explained: “I was giving up on any opportunity to stand when all this business about the expenses came up.
“So the misdeeds of some of them hit me, as you might say, ‘this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for’.”
Last week’s Hounslow and Brentford Times revealed that the latest general election poll pointed towards Ann Keen losing her seat.
Former Watchdog presenter Lynn Faulds Wood has already said she is considering standing against the Keens in next year’s election because she is appalled by their expenses claims.
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