Ed Miliband’s attempt to defuse the row over his cooking habits at home degenerated into farce as he insisted his family mainly used the modest kitchenette where he was filmed by the BBC this week.
The Labour leader and his wife, Justine, had been accused of focusing on the sparse room, which was devoid of a table and chairs, in an attempt to downplay the grandeur of their property amid unconfirmed rumours that the house might actually contain a third kitchen.
His insistence yesterday that they normally used the kitchenette contrasted with his Christmas card sent last year which featured a photograph of him sat at a table with his wife and children in the family’s large, modern kitchen, a floor below.
In a faltering attempt to defuse the political saga which has seen him branded “Two Kitchens”, Mr Miliband said: “I think Justine would probably say she wishes I’d spend more time in the kitchen.
“The house we bought had a kitchen downstairs when we bought it. And it is not the one we use. We use the small one upstairs.”
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Asked by the Birmingham Mail why he was filmed by the BBC drinking tea with his wife in the smaller kitchen, Mr Miliband replied: “This is the kitchen Justine and I use.”
His explanation conflicts with the earlier comments of a close friend who had insisted that the Milibands’ “functional kitchenette” next to the main reception room was reserved for “tea and quick snacks”. The couple refurbished the home after Mrs Miliband, a barrister, bought the property from the National Trust in 2009 for £1.6 million, £150,000 below the asking price, when the housing market dipped following the banking crisis.
The five-storey house in Dartmouth Park, north London, had been left to the charity by Elspeth Iliff, a violin teacher whose former husband, James, also a musician, had paid £1,000 for the property in 1959.
Camden council records show that the Milibands carried out a rewiring of the house, including a new circuit for the cooker, and installed an “environmental control system” as part of an extensive refurbishment carried out soon after they moved in.
When Mrs Miliband, an environmental law expert reported to earn £200,000 a year, remortgaged the property in 2013, her husband and their nanny had to sign a legal document as occupiers.
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It was suggested yesterday that the property may include a third kitchen, described as “hot drink preparation area”, for the live-in nanny.
A source, who saw the house while it was being marketed in 2009, said: “It was a beautiful Victorian house but hadn’t been touched for at least 30 years. It needed a complete refurbishment. The family kitchen was on the lower ground floor and I can’t remember any other kitchenette.
“Some of the houses in the area had been divided into bedsits so did have a number of kitchens but when they are turned back into family homes they are normally stripped out.”
Estate agent brochures for similar houses in the area feature large kitchens stretching the entire length of the lower ground floors with large dining areas.
The Milibands could have been inspired to include the kitchenette on the upper ground level by a veteran Labour supporter who lives opposite their home.
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Ronald Stamper, a retired university professor and a contemporary of Mr Miliband’s father, Ralph, at the London School of Economics, put his house on the market for £2.85 million last year featuring an “en-suite kitchenette” on the second floor.