At Home with the Smiths

Hard pressed mortgagees and property owners in the west Midlands who with the rest of the country have seen the value of their homes dive – and trying to let or rent them out to tenants is far from easy - must look with envious eyes at the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and think that she’s got it made.

The row over Smith’s expenses claims rumbles on with allegations that she has pocketed £116,000 of taxpayers money for a second home while she actually lodges with her sister.

The Daily Mail cracked the story. It has lambasted her as ‘ the Minister for Dodgy Expenses.’ Smith’s constituency is in Redditch as is her £300,000 family home where her husband lives and where her children go to school. But she has nominated her sister’s house in south London as her main residence. She says she pays her sister rent.

What she’s done is legal and within the rules. She’s taking full advantage of the ‘ second homes allowance.’ But in politics perception is everything and the whole unedifying business leaves a nasty taste. And there is now growing support for a radical shake-up and total transparency about such matters.

Several commentators and MPs have talked about the ethics of such behaviour – especially when the person at the centre of the row is the Home Secretary. Smith also pays her husband £40,000 a year as her parliamentary adviser.

There is a widespread view that people in high office should set a moral example. The Smith scandal follows revelations about Peers being paid by lobbyists and failed bankers in bailed out banks who are using taxpayers money to pay themselves big bonuses.