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From Wiki
Member of Parliament
Smith was selected to stand for election for Labour through an all-women shortlist.[10] This method of selection was subsequently declared illegal in January 1996 as it breached sex discrimination laws.[11] Despite the ruling she remained in place as the candidate for the following year's election.
She was elected MP for Redditch at the 1997 general election, as part of a (then) record number of female MPs elected to the House of Commons who were pejoratively tagged "Blair Babes". Smith was re-elected in 2001 and 2005. Due to boundary changes, she currently has a majority of 1,948 (4.6% of the 2005 vote).[12] This is the smallest majority of any current Cabinet member and makes her a prime target for the Conservatives in the next general election.
Smith entered the Government in July 1999 as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education and Employment, working with the Minister for School Standards Estelle Morris.[13] She then became a Minister of State at the Department for Health after the 2001 general election. She was appointed as the Government's deputy Minister for Women in 2003, working alongside Secretary of State Patricia Hewitt. In this role she published the Government's proposals for Civil Partnerships, a system designed to offer same-sex couples an opportunity to gain legal recognition for their relationship with an associated set of rights and responsibilities.
Minister for Schools
Following the 2005 general election, Smith was appointed to serve as the Minister of State for Schools in the Department for Education and Skills, replacing Stephen Twigg who had lost his seat.[14] She received praise in this role – often outperforming her superior Ruth Kelly. Teacher trade union sources stated that Smith "talked to us on our level".[15]
Government Chief Whip
In the 2006 reshuffle she was appointed as the Government's Chief Whip. In a period when supporters of Gordon Brown were pushing Prime Minister Tony Blair to resign, she was successfully able to calm the situation down.[15] The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson described her as being effective at "making peace between the warring Blair and Brown factions".[16]
Smith was regarded as a loyal Blairite during Tony Blair's premiership, a position reflected in her voting record,[17] and she was brought to tears by Blair's farewell appearance in the House of Commons.[15]
Home Secretary
Smith was appointed Home Secretary in Gordon Brown's first Cabinet reshuffle of 28 June 2007. Just one day into her new job bombs were found in London and a terrorist attack took place in Glasgow the following day.[18]
On 24 January 2008, she announced new sweeping powers for the police, including the proposal to hold "terrorist suspects" or those "linked to terrorism" for (forty-two days without charge).[19] In the same month Smith was involved in controversy when she admitted that she would not feel safe on the streets of London at night. Such statements were compounded by her suggestion that walking on streets at night was not "a thing that people do". Critics suggested her statements were an admission that the government had failed to tackle crime effectively.[20]
In June 2008, she wrote a letter to the NUJ stating that police may restrict photography, going against a long-standing principle of not inhibiting the freedom to take photographs, stating that the police can "restrict or monitor photography in certain circumstances".[21]
In November 2008, Smith introduced legislation to make it a criminal offence to pay for sex with a woman controlled by a pimp, with the possibility that anyone caught paying for sex with an illegally trafficked woman could face rape charges.[22]
Smith will introduce a crime mapping scheme which will allow for citizens of England and Wales to access information about local crime information and how to combat crime.[23] As Home Secretary, she was pleased to announce that minor crime has dropped year on year under the Labour government, and continued to do so in 2008.[24] Her officials, however, acknowledge that major crimes such as serious assault, rape and murder have increased year-on-year under the Labour government and are at their highest level since at least 1997.[25]
Smith managed to pass the 42 day detention law plans in the House of Commons, despite heavy opposition.[26] The House of Lords crushingly defeated the law, with Lords characterising it as "fatally flawed, ill thought through and unnecessary", stating that "it seeks to further erode [...] fundamental legal and civil rights".[27]
She is presently in the process of pushing through legislation for ID cards, having announced that they are to become compulsory for foreign students and airport staff. She has announced that the cards will cost "£30" but the true figure is likely to be double this.[28] She has claimed, despite evidence to the contrary, that the majority of the population is in favour of the scheme.[29][30] In another privacy-related issue, Smith said she was disappointed at the European Court of Human Rights' decision to strike down a law allowing the government to store the DNA and fingerprints of people with no criminal record, in December 2008 (when around 850,000 such DNA samples were being held in England and Wales).[31]
Smith has said that she was not told and should not have been told in November 2008 of the impending arrest of Damian Green, a Conservative Member of Parliament who had publicised several leaks causing embarrassment to her department. Her position was attacked by her Conservative shadow Dominic Grieve who accused her of "wilful ignorance",[32] and by her Labour predecessor John Reid who described her as "placid" and said that he would have wanted to be told and to express a view on such an action.[33]
In March 2009 a leaked poll of Labour Party members revealed that Smith was considered to be the worst performing member of the cabinet, just 56% of her party believe she is doing a good job.[34]
Drug policy
On the 19 July 2007 Smith admitted to smoking cannabis a few times in Oxford in the 1980s. "I did break the law... I was wrong... drugs are wrong," she said. Asked why students today should listen when she urged them not to try the drug, she said that the dangers of cannabis use had become clearer, including mental health issues and the increasing strength of the drug over the past 25 years. Smith's admission was made public the day after Gordon Brown appointed her head of a new government review of the UK Drugs strategy.[35]
In May 2008, against the recommendations of her own scientific advisers,[36] Smith reversed the government's 2004 decision to downgrade cannabis to a class C drug, returning it back to the higher penalization status of class B, with the law change taking effect on 26 January 2009.[37]
In February 2009 Jacqui Smith was accused by her most senior expert drugs adviser Professor David Nutt of making a political decision in rejecting the scientific advice to downgrade ecstasy from a class A drug. The advisory council on the misuse of drugs (ACMD) report on ecstasy, based on a 12-month study of 4,000 academic papers, concluded that it is nowhere near as dangerous as other class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine, and should be downgraded to class B alongside amphetamines and cannabis. The advice was not followed; the government saying that it was "not prepared to send a message to young people that we take ecstasy less seriously".[38] Smith was also widely criticised by the scientific community for bullying Professor David Nutt into apologising for his comments that the risk associated with taking ecstasy was no worse than riding a horse.[39]
Expenses controversies
On 8 February 2009, The Mail on Sunday revealed that Smith had designated as her main residence a house owned by her sister in order to claim a parliamentary allowance for her constituency home, despite explicitly stating on her website that she "lives in Redditch with husband, Richard and sons James (13) and Michael (8). [40] She has claimed more than £116,000 over six years from this arrangement, and additionally the policing cost is believed to be an additional £200,000 per annum."[3][41] When asked whether it was fair that she made claims believed to have been made for items such as a flat screen TV and scatter cushions, she said that analyses of her receipts had been very particular. In response to criticisms over her housing allowances, she said it was the "nature of the job" that MPs had to furnish and run two properties.[42]
On 29 March 2009, it was revealed in the Sunday Express that Smith, in April 2008, had claimed expenses on an internet bill that contained two adult films and two other pay-per-view films. Smith said it was a mistake, and said it was her husband's fault, and is going to re-pay the claim.[43][44] The subsequent furore led to the Prime Minister calling for a new system of payments to be introduced.[45]According to the Telegraph, the two films were Raw Meat 3 and By Special Request.[46] Gordon Brown said she had done nothing wrong.[47]
In April 2009, yet another expenses scandal involving Smith was unearthed after leaked documents showed she had charged the £40 cost of a barbecue to her parliamentary expenses,[48] and even a bath plug, despite the fact she is paid a salary of £142,000 a year.[49].
List of claims
Smith's expenses forms showed she also claimed for:
* Barbecue (£39.99)[50]
* Outdoor heater (£104)[51]
* Bathroom plug (£0.80)
* Plants for a terrace
* Plant pots (£334)[52]
* Television (Samsung 32" flatscreen) (£370)[53]
* Washing machine (£320)[54]
* Toothbrush holder (£2.50)[55]
* Towel
* Doormat (£14)[56]
* White rope (£30)[57]
* Video recorder[58]
She also charged taxpayers £12,000 over 5 years to pay cleaners at her second home.[59]
For a more detailed list of the expenses, running to £150,000, see
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... payer.html.
Smith is one of a number of MPs who employs their spouse as their personal secretary; since this entitles her to claim his salary as expenses, she has been criticised for this.
Personal life
Smith married Richard Timney (born 1963 in Ealing, London) in October 1987 in Malvern, Worcestershire, and has two sons. She is a very keen supporter of Aston Villa whom she regularly enjoys watching in her spare time.[60]
In December 2008, Timney was discovered to be behind a series of letters to newspapers praising the work of Smith, however he had failed to disclose that he was both her husband and in receipt of a £40,000 salary to manage her constituency office.
