Revealed: Jacqui Smith tells council her main residence is the house she
claimed was her SECOND home
By Tim Shipman
Last updated at 11:41 AM on 07th May 2009
Jacqui Smith was facing new sleaze claims last night over her
constituency home.
The property on which she has claimed thousands of pounds in second
homes allowance is actually her primary residence for tax purposes, it
was revealed.
The Home Secretary has pocketed £84,000 of taxpayers' money on the home
she shares with her husband, Richard Timney, and their two children in
Redditch, her West Midlands constituency.
That was only possible because she persuaded the House of Commons
authorities that her main home is actually her sister's spare bedroom in
London, where she lodges during the week.
But after a freedom of information request, Redditch council has
confirmed that Miss Smith pays council
tax as if the £300,000 constituency house was her main home.
Last night, Tory MP Ben Wallace said the revelations suggest the Home
Secretary is guilty of 'an abuse of the system'.
He has passed the details of Miss Smith's tax status to the
parliamentary sleaze watchdog, who has launched an inquiry into the
affair.
The discovery threatens to further undermine the Home Secretary's
already tarnished credibility, after it emerged that she also tried to
get taxpayers to pay for her husband's porn films.
Under council tax rules sent to residents in Redditch, homeowners can
claim a 25 per cent council tax discount if 'there is only one adult
living in the property as their main home'.
According to Miss Smith's expenses claims, her husband was the only
adult who lived there full time. But the couple have not claimed the
discount at any time since they moved into their current home in May
2004.
In a statement, Redditch Borough Council said: 'Jacqui Smith has not
benefited from a "second home" council tax discount. The charge has been
calculated on the basis of there being two adult residents in the
property.'
Between 2001 and 2007, the Home Secretary claimed a total of £116,000 in
second homes allowance for living in Redditch, of which around £84,000
was claimed on the property she moved to five years ago.
She shocked MPs by literally submitting a claim for the kitchen sink, a
stone model from Habitat valued
£550, along with two washing machines, an antique fireplace, and even a
bath plug worth 88p.
Mr Wallace said he has written to John Lyon, the Parliamentary
Commissioner for Standards, to draw his attention to the new
revelations.
He said: 'It is clear that Jacqui Smith's actions imply an abuse of the
expenses system. This new information calls into question the Home
Secretary's claims that her main full time residence is her sister's
spare bedroom.'
Mr Lyon launched a sleaze inquiry after a complaint from neighbours of
Miss Smith's sister Sara, who said it was 'a fabrication' to say that
the Home Secretary spent most of her time in her three-bedroom terrace
house in South-East London.
One reason why Miss Smith might have wanted to avoid claiming the second
homes council tax discount is that by admitting to the tax man that it
was a second residence she would be liable for capiidentstal gains tax
if the property is sold.
A spokesman for Miss Smith said: 'Neither Jacqui Smith nor her husband
have ever felt that they should apply for the single person council tax
discount on her second home in Redditch.'
A source close to the Home Secretary said that it 'never crossed her
mind' to do so and that neither she nor her sister claims a council tax
reduction in London.
The firestorm of criticism about MPs expenses has led to a consensus in
Parliament that the second homes allowance, worth up to £24,000 a year,
should be abolished.
But Gordon Brown's attempt to replace the allowance with a daily payment
for simply turning up to work was abandoned after a rebellion from
within Labour ranks.
Sir Christopher Kelly, the Commissioner on Standards in Public Life, is
trying to devise a solution.
MPS FIGHT TO DELAY RELEASE OF EXPENSES DETAILS
Worried MPs are fighting a 'rearguard action' to try to delay the
release of details about their taxpayer-funded expenses.
Anxiety about what their multi-million pound claims will reveal have
spurred some MPs to attempt to delay publication of their receipts
beyond July, it was claimed last night.
MPs have been given two months to trawl through a total of about one
million receipts to check for errors and delete any personal
information, including addresses or medical conditions.
Some are insisting that their records for the past four years are
littered with errors.
One MP said a dead colleague's receipts were in his file. A source close
to the Commons Commission, responsible for the breakdown of how MPs
spent their controversial second homes allowance, said there was a '
concerted effort' to halt publication until during party conference
season in the autumn.
Another source said Labour whips - responsible for party discipline -
were understood to be ' trying to run a rearguard action to delay
publication' .
Last week, it was claimed that at least three Labour MPs were terrified
that release of their expenses claims will expose them as adulterers and
financial cheats.
Http://www.dailymai l.co.uk/news/ article-1178191/ Revealed- Jacqui-Smith-
tells-council- main-residence- house-claimed- SECOND-home. html
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