A true friend of football: MPs salute Alan Keen
By Ian Dunt Follow @IanDunt
MPs issued heartfelt tributes to their colleague Alan Keen today, after he passed away following a "heroic fight" with cancer.
Labour's Feltham and Heston MP was chairman of parliament's all-party football group and spent the 18 years before coming to Westminster as a scout for Middlesbrough football club.
“Alan was great friend to me," Ed Miliband said.
"He was a great believer in the power of sport to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds make the best of their lives."
Gordon Brown said: "I salute his bravery in facing cancer – fighting it as long as he could – and he will be remembered as someone who taught us how to fight illness."
Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris said Mr Keen was "a top man and true friend of football in the House of Commons".
Louise Mensch tweeted: "His passionate love of football shone out all through our recent inquiry into the sport's governance. He loved life and was a wonderful man."
Mr Keen was brought up in Grangetown and Redcar in the north-east of England. He served in the army for three years before acting as a football scout for his club, Middlesbrough FC, for 18 years, working with Jackie Charlton.
With over 150 members, he turned the all-party football group into one of the most influential all-party groups in parliament, conducting two inquiries into English football and its governance.
Even in his later life, he played five-a-side football every Tuesday without fail.
The death triggers a by-election in Feltham and Heston which Labour should have little difficulty holding given its current 43.6% majority.
Conservative candidate Mark Bowen won 16,516 votes at the general election, compared to Mr Keen's 21,174.
