Outspoken Labour MP Austin Mitchell has been told off by the party’s high command for poking fun at Ed Miliband’s two kitchens. Mr Mitchell, 80, who is standing down as an MP in May, last week mischievously tweeted a picture of his own kitchen – complete with an unpacked bag of shopping and half-full glass of wine on the table – under the heading ‘this is what a real Labour kitchen looks like’. Yesterday he was sent a rebuke by Karl Turner, the shadow solicitor general, for the ‘attack’ on the party leader, warning him ‘if you can’t say anything supportive, keep your opinion to yourself’. Austin Mitchell tweeted this photograph with the caption: 'This is what a real Labour kitchen looks like' It is just the latest twist in the drama about Mr Miliband’s domestic set-up after he and wife Justine were filmed for a BBC interview having tea in a very small, empty kitchen with no seating area. In response to criticism, a family friend tweeted that the kitchen in the Milibands’ £2million North London townhouse was ‘lovely’ and that this was a ‘functional kitchenette’ for making ‘tea and snacks’. While most Labour MPs have resisted comment on the issue, Mr Mitchell fuelled the fire this weekend by tweeting: ‘Labour’s new pledge card promises two kitchens for all by 2030, two toilets by 2035.’ Last week, in a jibe at the Conservatives’ so-called bedroom tax, the veteran MP for Great Grimsby, had said: ‘Tories to introduce spare kitchen tax’. Mr Turner wrote him a letter, which Mr Mitchell duly published on his website yesterday, which read: ‘You’re a joke Austin. It’s very sad to see it but it’s becoming increasingly apparent. You think it clever to attack us. 'It’s not clever and you’ve had plenty out of the Party. Stop attacking us. ‘I am reluctant to pull you up publicly because you love the attention so very much. If you can’t say anything supportive just keep your opinion to yourself. 'We need to retain Grimsby. You’ve done little to help with that. And I doubt you’ve ever had a kitchen in Grimsby.’ It is just the latest twist in the drama about Mr Miliband’s domestic set-up after he and wife Justine were filmed for a BBC interview having tea in a very small, empty kitchen with no seating area . Mr Turner, the MP for Hull East, added that Mr Miliband ‘has one in Donny [his constituency in Doncaster] and mine’s massive in East Hull.’ It is a reference to Labour MPs’ thinking that Mr Mitchell has done little to help them campaign to keep the seat. It is the only Labour seat in the country which pollsters believe Ukip has a chance of winning. The veteran MP, who is an outspoken Eurosceptic, has also infuriated the leadership by claiming in a recent article that his party was promoting too many young women. He said Labour, which has used all-women shortlists to boost their numbers of female MPs, was ‘undergoing the biggest process of feminisation and rejuvenation embarked on since fabulous pink Camay soap promised to make us look a little lovelier every day.’ Mr Mitchell claimed that as a result, Labour was becoming more ‘family- friendly, gentler’ but ‘less prepared for all-night shenanigans of the parliamentary kind’. He also claimed that ‘ageism is rampant’ in the party, and that while he was standing down because ‘I’d rather not die in public’ other Labour MPs over 60, were being ‘carried out kicking and screaming’.
Austin Mitchell mischievously tweeted a picture of his kitchen last week . He accompanied image with: 'This is what a real Labour kitchen looks like'
The MP has been scolded by the party's high command for poking fun .