Jacqui Smith the Expenses Thief!

Strong words? Yes, and I'm not alone in thinking she's done a typical New Labour action of thievery. Peter Oborne writes very well in the Daily Mail today. He says -

"My brother has a house in Wiltshire where his family lives, where his social life is based and where his children go to school. However, he works in London so most nights of the week he stays in the capital and sleeps at my house.

It's a very friendly arrangement, and every so often he makes a contribution to our household expenses.
The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, and her sister, Sara, have a very similar arrangement - only with one crucial difference.

My brother does not claim that my home is his 'main residence' - in the same way that Ms Smith designated her sister's three-bedroom terrace house in South London when she submitted her Commons expenses.

If my brother did so, I would consider the poor chap had gone soft in the head."

Ms Smith may not have done anything against the letter of the law but she has traduced the spirit of it and the morality of taking £116,000 for expenses on a house that isn't yours is highly questionable.

Oborne is right to raise this, because not one single MP stood up to say she had done wrong when she answered Home Office Questions. It's this culture that has to change. Ms Smith is a cheat and she is every bit as bad as a regular thief.

She lectures us on burglaries and petty crime, but she sees no harm or wrongdoing in pocketing £116,000 for using her sister's house as her own "main home". Something not right there!