Prison service to investigate inmates painting Jacqui Smith house

An investigation has been launched into how two prisoners on day-release were allowed to do painting work for former home secretary Jacqui Smith. Smith made a contribution to charity after the offenders spent a few hours decorating a room at her home in Redditch while they were on release from jail working in the community. The former MP said she would be happy to answer any questions about the incident and that the two men came to her house because they did not have any other work to do. 

Speaking on London radio station LBC, where she was hosting a programme as a stand-in for regular presenter James O'Brien she also accused the Sun, which broke the story, of putting the "very worst spin" on what happened. The Sun said Smith had hired the two prisoners to paint her "luxury" home when they should have been cleaning up the local community. 

This was confirmed on Wednesday by the prison service. A spokesman said the two inmates, from HMP Hewell in Redditch, were meant to work to "help the whole community" as part of a scheme run by a local charity, the Batchley support group. He said: "The decision to provide prisoners for this work was taken without consultation with HMP Hewell or the Ministry of Justice and was a mistake. "Offenders should work on projects which help the whole community. The scheme has been suspended while a full internal investigation is undertaken."