March 30 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, under fire for claiming taxpayer-funded expenses for pornographic movies watched by her husband, should be allowed to get on with her job, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

Smith has said she will repay money claimed for the films her husband, Richard Timney, viewed at her constituency residence while she was away. She has already had to defend claiming second-home expenses on that house, in central England, while living at her sister’s flat in London.

Today, the leader of the main opposition Conservatives, David Cameron, stopped short of demanding Smith’s resignation, saying the revelations are “deeply embarrassing” for her. Brown, asked twice by reporters to state his confidence in the home secretary, called the controversy a “personal matter.”

“She has done the right thing by taking steps to rectify the mistake that was made as soon as she became aware of it,” Brown said at his office in London today. “The best thing is that Jacqui Smith gets on with her work, which is what she wants to do.”

Smith said the television expenses were mistakenly submitted when making a 67-pound ($95) claim for an Internet connection. Timney is employed as her parliamentary assistant and files her expenses.

Members of the House of Commons earn a basic salary of 63,291 pounds. As a Cabinet minister, Smith earns an extra 78,575 pounds a year, taking her total salary to 141,866 pounds.

Home Allowances

On top of that, lawmakers representing seats outside London can claim up to 24,000 pounds a year for the cost of running a second home, either in London or their constituency. The rules on deciding which is their main home say it should be the one where they live most of the time.

By nominating London, where she works during the week, as her main home, Smith is able to claim the costs of mortgage interest and refurbishment of the home in Redditch, England, where her husband and children live, 120 miles from London. She is under investigation by parliament’s watchdog over the claim.

Speaking to GMTV today, Cameron called on Brown to speed up a review of lawmakers’ pay and allowances announced after revelations that Employment Minister Tony McNulty claimed 60,000 pounds in second-home allowances on his parents’ residence in outer London, even though he lived only a few miles away.

“The prime minister has ordered a review but he has sort of kicked it into the long grass,” Cameron said. “The review doesn’t start until September. It is not going to report until after the next election. That is hopeless.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net or Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 30, 2009 08:23 EDT