While the country struggles to keep their homes how our MP's show no morality

[Jacqui D]

Minister for dodgy expenses: How CAN Jacqui Smith justify £116,000 claim for home costs while staying with her sister?
By Ian Drury
Last updated at 12:44 PM on 09th February 2009
Comments (187) Add to My Stories Jacqui Smith has pocketed more than £116,000 of taxpayers' money for a second home while lodging with her sister.

The Home Secretary classifies the 'digs' in London as her main residence, which leaves her clear to bank up to £24,000 a year in Commons expenses to run her family home.

Miss Smith claims the generous payments for the detached house in her West Midlands constituency where she lives with her husband and two young children.



'Morally questionable': Home Secretary Jacqui Smith classifies the home of her sister, Sara Smith, below, as her main residence, enabling her to bank £24,000 a year in Commons expenses to run her family home in the West Midlands




On Sunday night she insisted she had 'fully abided' by Parliament's rules for claiming the additional costs allowance - also known as second homes allowance - which allows MPs from outside London to fund and furnish somewhere to live near the House of Commons.

But critics branded her claim 'morally questionable' and said she was setting a bad example following a string of scandals surrounding MPs' expenses.

Miss Smith, whose Cabinet post comes with a salary of £142,000 a year, is allowed to use public money to subsidise her £300,000 family home in Redditch because she has nominated a house owned by her sister Sara as her main property.

She pays 39-year-old Sara, a BBC reporter, a 'market rate' to stay in the three-bedroom terraced house in South London, when she is in the capital, normally between Monday and Thursday.

Between 2001 and 2007, she claimed a total of £782,000 in Commons expenses - with £116,000 under her second home allowance.

Sleaze-busting Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said: 'It seems extraordinarily bad value for the taxpayer.

'This suggests that the steps taken to eliminate unsatisfactory elements of the housing allowance system have not yet been completed.'

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance pressure group, said: 'Many people looking at this situation will consider it morally questionable that Jacqui Smith should have claimed this allowance.


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'Now that Parliament's reputation has been tarnished so much, it is up to senior ministers to be whiter than white. Jacqui Smith has not done this.'

A spokesman for Miss Smith said: 'The Home Secretary has always abided fully with Parliament's clear rules on expenses and has long-standing written approval from the Parliamentary Fees Office for any agreed expenses.

Main residence? Sara Smith's home which Jacqui Smith calls her 'London 'digs'

'She spends the majority of her time in London attending to government business and has full approval for any associated expenses relating to her second home in her West Midlands constituency.'

She added: 'She has lived with her sister in London since she was a backbench MP and is perfectly happy with it. Most people would think that is a nice thing.'

Dismissing claims Miss Smith paid a 'peppercorn rent' to her sister, the spokesman said she handed over 'a market rate', which London estate agents estimate would be about £100 a week.

Miss Smith does not use a 'grace and favour' ministerial residence in London which is offered to Home Secretaries.

Had she accepted a 'grace and favour' residence she would not have been able to claim the second homes allowance.

It is understood the Metropolitan Police, which provides round-the-clock security at her sister's property, and Parliament's Fees Office are happy with the arrangement.

The second homes allowance allows MPs to cover mortgage interest, fuel bills, food and furnishings, including goods off the notorious 'John Lewis list' such as new kitchens, bathrooms, flat screen televisions, fridges and carpets.

The unofficial guidance used by the Commons authorities to judge MPs' claims is based on prices at the department store.


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Commons rules state the main residence is where the MP 'spends more nights than any other', although 'value for money' for the taxpayer can be used as a factor to determine which home it is.

Claims must be 'above reproach . . . with no suggestion of misuse of public money', according to Parliament's Green Book, which governs an MP's perks and conduct.

It also warns politicians to 'avoid any arrangement which may give rise to an accusation that you are, or someone close to you is, obtaining an immediate benefit or subsidy from public funds'.

It is not the first time Miss Smith has come under fire over MPs' expenses. In July last year, she voted against tightening up the system, claiming the reforms would have created extra work for her staff.

She was one of five Cabinet ministers to oppose a shake-up aimed at preventing the abuse of Westminster allowances.

The Home Secretary has also raised eyebrows as she pays her husband Richard Timney £40,000 a year as her parliamentary adviser.

In December he was unmasked as the author of a series of letters to his local newspaper which attacked Conservative policies on security and transport.

His letters omitted to mention he is married to a Cabinet minister.

He quit his civil engineer's job to bring up their two children when Miss Smith became MP for Redditch, in Worcestershirein 1997. The constituency has a 2,716 majority and is a top Tory target.

A peer at the centre of the 'cash-for-amendments' scandal is facing fresh questions for claiming £70,000 of taxpayer-funded expenses.

Lord Truscott, who allegedly offered help to amend legislation in return for consultancy fees, claimed the money for overnight stays in London.

He picked up the perk despite having a £700,000 home in Mayfair, where he lives with his Russian wife Svetlana.

Lord Truscott, 49, is eligible for the payment because he has told the Lords' authorities his main residence is a flat in Bath, Somerset. He has not broken any parliamentary rules.