THEY were born five days apart, lived on the same council estate, went to the same school and have both been Lord Mayor of Oxford.

Now Cowley couple Bryan and Beryl Keen have both been honoured by the Labour Party for their support since 1971.

They moved to Oxford in 1979 from their home town of Norwich and have given more than 40 years combined service to Oxford City Council.

He represented Iffley from 1989 to 2000 and Cowley from 2002 to 2012 and she held the same wards from 1986 to 2002 and 2002 to 2006.

Mrs Keen, 80, was Lord Mayor of Oxford in 1996/97 and her husband in 2004/05.

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Mr Keen, 80, whose job was election agent, said: “We’ve just done everything together, its unique.

“The merit award is individual and to be given it together was nice. It was great to be recognised, there’s a lot of younger people in the party who won’t have known what we’ve done.”

They got involved after a party agent invited the couple to an AGM when he saw they had put Lego models of Labour figures Harold Wilson and George Brown in the window of their home prior to the 1970 General Election.

Mr Keen said: “We both grew up on a council estate and were very much from a Labour background and have always voted Labour.

“What the Labour party are saying now is exactly what they were saying in 1971, we want a fairer society. We just can’t stick the Tories I suppose.”

He was Oxford East MP Andrew Smith’s election agent from 1983 to 1997 and said: “When Beryl was Lord Mayor in 1997 she was able to announce Andrew Smith as the MP for Oxford East and I was in the same position in 2005 and was able to do the same thing, those are the two highlights for me.”

Oxford Mail: In their Mayoral robesIn their Mayoral robes

The Keens in their Mayoral robes

Mr Keen’s favourite leader is Tony Blair. He said: “Tony Blair brought the party back again and to win three general elections was some achievement. I support Ed Miliband at the moment, the press are after him most of the time but he’s a good leader in my eyes. The party is in the right position at the moment.”

They have raised money for arthritis research and sat on the committee which won Oxford gold in the Britain in Bloom award three years running.

The couple were last month presented with a certificate of merit by Mr Smith, who hailed them as “stalwarts”. He said: “They are great people, a real double act, really committed to the Labour party and really committed to the community.”

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