Slap on the wrist for guilty Jacqui Smith: She is told to say sorry, but not to repay £100,000

Published 13th Oct 2009

Jacqui Smith was let off with a slap on the wrist yesterday even though Parliament’s sleaze watchdog said she was in clear breach of rules on MPs’ expenses.

Labour’s former Home Secretary grudgingly apologised in the Commons after John Lyon, Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, delivered a scathing verdict on her £100,000-plus second-home claims.

His devastating report – and the fact that Miss Smith’s own police protection officers contradicted her version of events – appeared to leave her political career in ruins.

She decided to designate a room in her sister’s house in London as her main home – allowing her to claim up to £24,000 a year in taxpayers’ money towards the running of her family home in Redditch.

Mr Lyon said the designation was ‘contrary to the purpose as well as to the letter of the rule’.

He said Miss Smith had been in breach of the guidelines on expenses from 2004 to 2009, a period in which she claimed at least £116,000 in total.

He also revealed that for months, the Home Office and Cabinet Office held up the release of police records showing how long Miss Smith spent at each of her homes.

The report said that between June 2007 and March 2009, she was actually spending more nights at her constituency home than in London – contradicting claims she made when the complaints about her expenses were first raised.

But despite Mr Lyon’s damning assessment of her arrangements, the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee failed to demand any repayment.

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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