Ed Miliband complained in person to George Osborne after the chancellor used his budget speech to mock the Labour leader over the two kitchens at his north London home, according to Tory sources.
In the aftermath of the budget, the Labour leader is understood to have told the chancellor that he had acted unfairly after making jokes at his expense.
Tory MPs who heard about the encounter thought Miliband had been overly sensitive after the chancellor made two jokes at his expense in the budget – immediately after David Cameron had made a series of quips about his kitchens. “Ed Miliband told George that he thought he had been rather unfair to him,” one Tory said.
A Labour source played down the encounter. “There was a bit of banter in the chamber,” the source said. “Ed did not think it was anything out of the ordinary.”
The chancellor poked fun at Miliband as he used the Labour leader’s two kitchens to explain initiatives that link home appliances to the internet, a concept known as the internet of things. The chancellor said: “So should – to use a ridiculous example – someone have two kitchens, they will be able to control both fridges from the same mobile phone.”
Osborne had earlier tried his best to keep a straight face when he taunted the Labour leader over a deed of variation on his parents’ home. Miliband’s mother arranged for a deed of variation, which can be used to reduce inheritance tax, to allow her two sons to take a share of the family home in Primrose Hill, north London, after the death of his father in 1994. Miliband said he paid tax on the transaction.
The chancellor said: “I can also tell the House that we will conduct a review on the avoidance of inheritance tax through the use of deeds of variation. It will report by the autumn.” In a dig at Miliband, Osborne added: “We will seek a wide range of views.”
Miliband, who performed the traditional budget response by the leader of the opposition, could have been forgiven for a slight feeling of irritation after he also endured a series of kitchen jokes from Cameron at prime minister’s questions. Cameron made a total of four kitchen jokes: “I can see the shadow chancellor chuckling. We know the shadow chancellor wants to be in the kitchen cabinet. He just does not know which kitchen to turn up to.”
Miliband replied: “Somehow I thought the prime minister might mention kitchens. Let me just say that at least I paid for my kitchen, unlike the government chief whip.” This was a reference to Michael Gove’s expenses claims in the last parliament.
In his other kitchen jokes Cameron said: “Which of his kitchens did he pay for? I think we deserve an answer. I feel sorry for the leader of the opposition – he literally does not know where his next meal is coming from; “Frankly, if he cannot stand the heat, he had better get out of his second kitchen and “What I would say to the shadow chancellor is that his boss threw both his kitchen sinks at the NHS and he still could not win.”
Miliband explained his kitchen arrangements after he was filmed with his wife, Justine Thornton, in a small kitchen. This prompted his friend, the columnist Jenni Russell, to tweet her support.
Ed Miliband's kitchen is lovely. Daily Mail pix: the functional kitchenette by sitting room for tea and quick snacks.
— Jenni Russell (@jennirsl) March 12, 2015
The Labour leader told the Birmingham Mail: “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.”
