My marriage is strong, insists Jacqui Smith as it is revealed she even charged the taxpayer for her toothbrush holder
By SIMON WALTERS
Last updated at 12:22 PM on 05th April 2009
Extraordinary expenses claims: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith
Jacqui Smith has made extraordinary expenses claims for household goods including a £304 barbecue, garden patio set and heater ostensibly to ‘help her perform her duties as an MP’.
Together with a £334 receipt for plant pots, the bill was submitted as part of the £150,000 claimed by Ms Smith for her ‘second-home allowance’ since 2001.
In addition, Ms Smith has charged taxpayers £12,000 for cleaning her Redditch constituency home.
A full list of Ms Smith’s expenses reveals how she has been on a publicly funded shopping spree to kit out her home from top to bottom in recent years.
For the kitchen-diner she claimed for a stone sink and console at £550, a Hotpoint cooker at £414 and a £14 doormat.
For the bathroom: plumbing, £405.37; tiles, £36.36; shelf, mirror, linen dispenser, toothbrush holder and double towel rail, £88.97; shower mixer and fitting, £499.36.
For the living room she claimed for armchair and cushion and delivery, £575; three suede cushions, circle light track and mirror, £59.37; fireplace and fittings, £1,000; Samsung 32in flat-screen TV, £369.99.
For the bedroom she claimed for a sofabed, £511.20, and bed linen, £110.
Outside and in the garden: hosepipe, £74.79; white rope, £30.72; Monaco patio set, £160; plant pots, £334.70.
General and services: decorating (hallway, stairs, main bedroom and cloakroom), £1,370; Virgin Media service charges, £68 and £67.
Ms Smith also charged £2,400 a year for cleaners and an average of £11,600 a year for her mortgage between 2006 and 2008.
But last night a defiant Ms Smith brushed aside the row over her expenses claim for two pornographic movies on a subscription TV channel and said she had never contemplated resigning over the incident.
Expense row: Jacqui Smith and husband Richard Timney
She refused to comment on claims that her husband Richard Timney, who was blamed for ordering the adult films, had been banished to the sofa.
She insisted her marriage was ‘strong’ – in spite of rumours to the contrary. And she said their two children, aged 13 and ten, were ‘fine’.
She said of her marriage: ‘We’ve got a strong relationship personally and professionally – in terms of the work he does in my constituency office. And it’s still strong now.’
Asked if she had banned her husband from the marital bedroom she said: ‘I think I should be very open about my expenses, but there are bits of my private life that I don’t think should be open to public scrutiny.’
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