Smith: women in power are treated differently

The former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has claimed she was badly treated and branded "stroppy" because she is a woman.

In an interview with the BBC World Service she complained that, despite her mistakes, women in power were treated differently to men.

She said she had been annoyed by being described as "stroppy" on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme – saying she had never heard a man described as that. "A lot of language that has been used, not only about me but about other women politicians as well, I just don't think would be used about men actually," she said.

She also said she had felt humiliated over her husband's admission he had charged porn films to the taxpayer. But she said she did not feel "personally ashamed", saying she believed she had lived up to her own high standards.

She said it was "horrible" and cited the subsequent pressure on her family as among her reasons for quitting the Government this month. Asked whether her husband Richard Timney's televised apology outside their home had been humiliating, she said: "Yes – and for him. It was horrible."

Ms Smith said that he had apologised to her and their children.