Minister's 'training to be leader' costs £2,000
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has spent £2,000 of taxpayers’ money on “leadership training” to boost her image and confidence, it was revealed yesterday.
The under-pressure Home Secretary underwent six sessions of “executive coaching” since taking up her role in June 2007.
Her lessons are understood to have included dealing with stress and voice training.
They were revealed in a series of Parliamentary Written Answers in response to an investigation by Tory MP Greg Hands.
It was also revealed that Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Andy Burnham ran up a £1,986.84 bill for “media training” including public speaking.
This has provoked amusement at Westminster.
But the revelation that the Home Secretary is trying to hone her leadership skills comes amid growing criticism of her record and accusations that she is not up to the job.
It is beyond me why the minister for media needs media training
Earlier this week her predecessor John Reid described the former schoolteacher’s management style as “placid”.
She is currently under fire over the arrest of Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green in a Whitehall leak inquiry.
Mr Hands said: “Given her current predicament, the Home Secretary needs to up her performance drastically, but I can’t see why taxpayers should pay for her executive coaching.
“And it is beyond me why the minister for media needs media training – and at public expense.
“As the Government goes on a borrowing binge worth billions, it appears it has lost all control of Government costs. Taxpayers feeling the pinch will not be impressed.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Ms Smith was given executive coaching, which is basically leadership coaching. We invest in all our staff and managers. Everybody is obliged to have some training.
“Just because she is Home Secretary doesn’t mean she should be excluded from staff training.”
It was also disclosed that Foreign Secretary David Miliband has undergone “training in the presentation of foreign policy and Foreign and Com- monwealth IT (Information Technology) systems”.
Defence Secretary John Hutton had “undertaken mandatory pre-deployment training in preparation for recent visits to Iraq and Afghanistan”.
