Richard Timney, the husband of home secretary Jacqui Smith, issues an apology for embarrassing his wife. Photograph: PA/PA

The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, apologised today for an expenses claim which included adult films watched by her husband Richard Timney.

Smith said she mistakenly submitted an expenses claim which included five pay-per-view films, including two adult movies which were viewed at her family home in her Redditch constituency.

The £67 Virgin Media bill was submitted last June as part of Smith's expenses. It included two 18-rated features, each costing £5, which were viewed on 1 April and 6 April last year. The bill also included two viewings of the film Ocean's 13 ‑ at £3.75 each ‑ and an additional £3.50 to watch the film Surf's Up.

Ms Smith said in a statement: "I am sorry that in claiming for my internet connection, I mistakenly claimed for a television package alongside it. As soon as the matter was brought to my attention, I took immediate steps to contact the relevant parliamentary authorities and rectify the situation. All money claimed for the television package will be paid back in full."

Later, speaking outside the couple's home in Redditch, Worcestershire, Timney told reporters: "I am really sorry for any embarrassment I have caused Jacqui. I can fully understand why people might be angry and offended by this. Quite obviously a claim should never have been made for these films, and as you know that money is being paid back."

Her husband read out a short statement in which he apologised for causing his wife embarrassment over an expenses claim which included adult films he watched.

A friend told the Press Association that Smith knew there was "no excuse" for the error but added: "To say she's angry with her husband is an understatement. Jacqui was not there when these films were watched. She's furious and mortified."

News of the claim is a new embarrassment to Smith who last month faced criticism for claiming taxpayer-funded allowances for her family home while living with her sister in London. Smith said she had "fully abided" by the rules by designating her sister's house as her "main" residence, allowing her to claim payments on the Redditch constituency home she shares with her husband and children.

The parliamentary commissioner for standards, John Lyon, has called on her to explain the £116,000 which she has claimed since becoming an MP.

After today's disclosure about the expenses claim for the adult pay-per-view films, former shadow home secretary David Davis told Sky News: "It is very hard to believe. My first response was, under what category would this expense claim be? I didn't even know films were that expensive … claiming for films? I can't believe it."

Asked if she should resign Davis said: "I don't call for people to go unless I think there is absolutely a smoking gun but I just do think on this circumstance the sympathy for her will be even less than it otherwise would have been because she is not that good at her job."

The foreign secretary, David Miliband, said Smith was an "outstanding" home secretary, but refused to be drawn on the disclosures about her expenses. Asked on BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show if it was "final straw time" for Smith, Miliband said: "I am never going to get into individual cases. What I am absolutely confident of is that Jacqui Smith is doing an outstanding job as the home secretary with some of the toughest responsibilities in government."

Today's apology from Smith came as Labour leftwinger Harry Cohen, who was said to have claimed more than £300,000 in second home allowances on his house in the capital, insisted that he had done nothing wrong as it was "part of my salary". Cohen said that MPs had been told "go out boys and spend it" when the present system was introduced under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

The Mail on Sunday reported that the MP listed a single-bedroom schoolhouse in Colchester, Essex, and a caravan on nearby Mersea island as his main home.

The paper said that it meant that over the past five years he was able to claim the maximum allowance of £104,701 on his constituency home 70 miles away in Leyton and Wanstead, east London. It calculated that since 1990, he had received a total of £310,714 in allowances.

Cohen told the Press Association that the arrangement had been cleared with the House of Commons authorities. He said that the former Conservative minister John Moore had told MPs "go out boys and spend it" when he introduced a big uprating of the allowance in the 1980s to head off a pay revolt by backbench Tories.

Cohen said that he had taken full advantage of the arrangement ever since. "That is exactly what John Moore said on behalf of Mrs Thatcher to her Tory MPs. That makes it part of my salary," he said. "It really is part of my salary in all but name. That is what it exists for."

Cohen said the Colchester property was his "family home". He said that there was no reason under the Commons rules why London MPs should not live outside the capital and have a second home in their constituency. "It is the legitimate costs of having a constituency home to do my job. We don't have a system where people are required to live in their constituency," he said.

"I am doing nothing wrong whatsoever. I am using it for parliamentary purposes. It is a legitimate and proper use of it."

Nevertheless the latest disclosure is likely to fuel demands for a complete overhaul of the system of MPs' expenses and allowances. Gordon Brown last week tried to head off the growing public anger by asking the committee on standards in public life to carry out a review of the whole system.

It followed the disclosure that another Greater London MP, immigration minister Tony McNulty, was claiming the allowance on the home where his parents live in his Harrow constituency, even though he lived only a few miles away in Hammersmith. However, with the committee not planning to report until after the next general election, the latest row may lead to fresh demands for an immediate crackdown.