Jacqui Smith: I still back Brown, but this election will be tough

Jun 4 2009 By Jonathan Walker

Jacqui Smith has insisted she still backs Gordon Brown despite quitting the cabinet, as she admitted Labour could face a trashing in this week's local and European elections.

The MP for Redditch, who is to stand down as Home Secretary, apologised to Labour candidates for the “febrile Westminster atmosphere” that had overshadowed the election campaign.

Ms Smith said she had no intention of leaking her decision to quit the Cabinet in advance. News of her resignation emerged on Tuesday, undermining Mr Brown’s plans for a high-profile reshuffle to reassert his authority.

But she confirmed she told the Prime Minister at Easter that she was tired of life in the front line of politics.

She said: “I talked to the Prime Minister over the Easter recess about my situation. I said to him then that I thought the best thing for me was to return to the backbenches, to be able to focus on my constituency, which is the reason I am in this job in the first place, and also to be able to focus on my other job as a mother and a wife, and that’s what’s important to me.

“I would rather actually it hadn’t come out yesterday - I’m continuing my job until the reshuffle.”

Ms Smith insisted her decision to leave the Government did not reflect any lack of confidence in Gordon Brown.

She said: “It leaves the Prime Minister where he should be, focusing on running this country. Doing that through difficult political and economic times, but doing it with considerable strength, experience and commitment.

“He has my unwavering support, and I have great respect for him leading this country through difficult times and I think he should continue doing that.”

She urged voters to back Labour at the polling booth, adding: “But I know it’s going to be a really hard election.

“There are local councillors out there, there are members of the European Parliament, who are working hard in order to represent this country’s interests on the international stage and at a local council level.

“They have my full support. I’m sorry they’ve had to fight this campaign in the sort of febrile Westminster atmosphere that they have done, but they are fighting it on the basis of the things that really matter to the British people.”

Ms Smith revealed that Tuesday’s Cabinet had discussed how to restore public confidence in Labour and politics in general.

She said: “All of us have got a responsibility, nobody understands that more than the Prime Minister, to get out and about, to talk to people, to listen.

“That is why yesterday in Cabinet, led by the Prime Minister, we spent a considerable amount of time talking about what we need to do as a party, as a country, to bring back faith for people in our democracy, and particularly in our MPs.

“He, and we as a Government, have led and want to lead that democratic renewal, in the same way as he has led and will lead economic renewal and building for the future of the economy in this country.”

Ms Smith said she was innocent of all accusations made about her expenses claims, except for the “bad mistake” of reclaiming the cost of two adult films.

She said: “I am subject to an investigation by the Independent Commissioner of standards. It’s been a very full investigation. He has had unprecedented access to all sorts of things, like my Ministerial diaries.

“I am very happy that independent inquiry is going on.

“He will make his view clear about whether or not I did or did not break the rules. I believe I didn’t. I believe I stuck by the spirit and the letter of those rules.

“Where I made a bad mistake, in claiming ten pounds for the films that everyone knows about, I paid that back and I apologised.”