Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith yesterday defended using day-release prisoners to help paint her home because they "didn't have anything else on".

FORMER home secretary Jacqui Smith has defended using day-release prisoners to paint her home, claiming they "didn't have anything else on".

I'm sure that I will get accused of misogyny but I'm going to say it any way. Jacqui Smith was never up to the job, not because she was a woman but because she was rubbish. Home Secretary is one of the toughest jobs in politics and it needs someone who is at the top of their game, Jacqui Smith isn't. I'm saddened that the issue of her husband's TV viewing did her so much damage as it really was an...

Whitehall sources tell us that Jacqui Smith is to step down in a reshuffle expected next week. Let's face it: she will hardly be placed in the front rank of Home Secretaries. There will be no litany of notable holders of the post that begins with Peel, proceeds through Churchill and Jenkins and continues with Smith. As the occupant of one of the great offices of state, Jacqui Smith'...

Whether Gordon Brown intended to hold a reshuffle or not, Jacqui Smith has just given him no choice, by letting it be known she will be resigning as Home Secretary at the end of the week. Tom Watson has made a similar decision. The fact is that Jacqui Smith should never have been appointed to the position in the first place. To go into that job with no other Cabinet experience would be a tough ask...

Jacqui Smith is having to pay back money she claimed for her pay-for-view TV. What I like is the fact that two "Adult films" were included as part of the expenses claim. Jacqui wasn't in at the time the pornos were viewed - naughty naughty hubby! - must be all that time Jacqui is supposedly spending at her sister's house. On a more serious note Jacqui Smith MUST be sacked for this fraudu...

Jacqui Smith, the former home secretary, arranged for two day-release prisoners to paint her home when they should have been doing community work.

Jacqui Smith: "within the rules" but still defrauding the taxpayer. The whole furore over that fucking whore's expenses rumbles on, as the Mail on Sunday reveals even more of the Home Secretary's profligacy. Jacqui Smith has charged taxpayers for everything from a £39.99 barbecue to a £2.50 toothbrush holder—ostensibly to help her 'perform her duties as an MP'. The beleaguered Home Secreta...

What the living fuck? Via Guido, I see that Jacqui Smith—surprise, surprise—has been defrauding the taxpayer to the tune of some £116,000, as reported by the Mail on Sunday. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has claimed more than £116,000 in Commons expenses for a 'second home' while effectively lodging with her sister. Ms Smith claims the maximum parliamentary second-home allowance, curre...

Put that the Prime Minister had said early this week that banks should ask themselves some searching questions, and asked if the Prime Minister thought there was a case for Jacqui Smith to ask herself some searching questions over expenses, the PMS replied that in relation in Jacqui Smith, as people knew, she had been talking about this and her office had been making clear that the Home Secretary ...