Hubby of Top UK Minister Billed Taxpayers for Porn

Jacqui Smith, the British home secretary, was fighting for her political future today after revelations that her husband had billed the taxpayer to watch pornography at their house. The $15 rental fees for two adult movies were bundled into the minister's Internet bill, which he expensed to parliament. Smith has said she will pay back the money, but opposition politicians have suggested she might be unable to carry on, reports the Guardian.

Smith is the first woman to serve as home secretary, a powerful position with responsibility for issues from drugs policy to immigration and citizenship. She was said to be "mortified and furious" at her husband, who works as her aide and is said to have filed the expenses request himself. Gordon Brown's office defended her "inadvertent mistake," but a leading Tory expressed incredulity: "My first response was, under what category would this expense claim be?" (More Jacqui Smith stories.)