Standards commissioner rejects Smith complaint
By politics.co.uk staff
The parliamentary standards commissioner has rejected a request to investigate the expenses situation of home secretary Jacqui Smith.
But his spokesperson said other requests had come in, and that those were now being considered.
“I can confirm the Commissioner has received at least one further complaint,” she said.
Earlier today Ms Smith described her decision to claim expenses on a second home as “above board”.
According to the Mail on Sunday, Ms Smith has claimed over £116,000 in second home expenses over several years – all applied to a house in her constituency.
But it is understood Ms Smith lives with her sister in London when parliament sits, between Monday and Thursday.
During a visit to domestic abuse charity Refuge in London today, Ms Smith said: “I have abided
by the rules. Everything I have done is above board.
“The thing with being MPs is we have to live in more than one place.
“I have always been very clear with the authorities about the arrangements that I made. I specifically asked whether or not the home where my children live had to be my main home. I received assurances it didn’t have to be.
“Because we live in two places, that’s why we make the arrangements that we do.”
Yesterday, David Cameron said the home secretary had questions to answer about the situation.
“There are rules and you have to meet both the letter and the spirit [of the rules] and explain in a reasonable way ‘this is the arrangement I have and I think it is a reasonable one’,” he said.
Those comments were quickly followed by the first complaint to the standards commissioner, John Lyons, from pressure group Centre for Open Politics.
There is some uncertainty in government about the rules for which of MPs’ homes should be categorised as their main home.
Mr Lyons suggests the home where the MP spends to most time should be the “normal criteria”.
But the Liberal Democrats have asked Commons authorities to look at the designation system again.
Lib Dem MP Norman Baker has written to the Speaker asking about the current rules.
In the letter, Norman Baker said: “To most people, the place where you and your family lives and perhaps did so before your election, where you return to when you are not working, and which serves as a base for your children to go to school, is your main residence.
“A ‘pied-à-terre’ in London, or a room in a relative’s house, cannot sensibly be regarded as a main residence. It is clearly a second residence.
“Yet this test seems not to be applied by all members. Indeed, I understand one member claims that his ancestral castle is his second home, and claims accordingly for the lichen to be removed from its walls. This cannot be right.”
