MPs' expenses: Cabinet meltdown as Jacqui Smith heads resignations

Gordon Brown is facing a major Cabinet crisis after the resignation of three of his senior ministers threw the Government into disarray on the eve of critical local and European elections.

By Andrew Porter, Political Editor
Published: 9:44PM BST 02 Jun 2009



Cabinet meltdown as Jacqui Smith heads resignations Photo: PA
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, dealt the most serious blow to the Prime Minister’s authority. It emerged that she will step down from the Cabinet when Mr Brown reshuffles his team after what Labour fears will be its worst performance at the polls for a generation.

She had been under pressure for weeks over expenses claims made by her husband on her behalf, including for two pornographic films. However, the public disclosure of her departure before tomorrow’s elections threw Mr Brown’s reshuffle off course.


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Sources close to Downing Street suggested that Miss Smith’s decision only became public after it was leaked by friends of Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, who was criticised by Mr Brown over her expenses claims.

On a tumultuous and chaotic day at Downing Street, it was also announced that Beverley Hughes would move aside from her job as Children’s Minister and not stand at the next election and that Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office Minister and key ally of Mr Brown, would leave the Government.

With speculation intensifying that Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, will become the most high-profile victim of the reshuffle, and that David Miliband might also be replaced as Foreign Secretary, it raised the prospect that the three great offices of state could change hands.

But in a sign that Mr Brown may face a mutiny if he tries to overhaul all of his key personnel, Mr Miliband said he wanted to stay in his post. Mr Brown is reportedly toying with the idea of replacing him with Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary. William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said that the Government had “lost all authority and the ability to governâ€