Sir Keir Starmer hands peerage to expenses-scandal former Labour cabinet minister who said ‘disgraced’ people should not go to the Lords [Video]

21:20 EDT 06 Jul 2024, updated 05:26 EDT 07 Jul 2024

Sir Keir Starmer has handed a peerage to an expenses-scandal former Labour cabinet minister who said ‘disgraced’ people should not go to the Lords.

No 10 said last night that ex-Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was returning as an Education Minister and would be given a peerage.

Ms Smith charged taxpayers for two porn films – which her now ex-husband later confessed to watching – and wrongly designated her sister’s home as her main home for Commons allowances. She told BBC1’s Question Time in 2009: ‘I don’t think people who have been disgraced should go to the Lords.’ Pressed on whether that included her, Ms Smith replied: ‘Yes, I think, to a certain extent I have been.’

Government sources said last night those events were ‘over a decade ago’. Ms Smith was approached for comment.

Ms Smith who is now making a comeback to politics as a peer, previously lost her …