<text>  If you cant stand the heat, get out of your second kitchen. Ed Miliband today sought to cool the row over his unusual domestic arrangements, insisting he prefers the functional kitchenette where he was seen posing for TV cameras. The Labour leader, who has repeatedly insisted he is not interested in photo opportunities,was filmed sipping tea at home with his wife Justine in a modest kitchen at his 2million North London home. Now it has emerged that the image of the Labour leader as a man of the people with a run-of-the-mill home was not all it appeared. For Mr Miliband actually lives in a house with two kitchens. The godmother to one of Mr Milibands children tonight revealed that the kitchen Ed Miliband and his wife were pictured in was in fact a functional kitchenette next to the familys sitting room . Jenni Russell, a newspaper columnist, said the kitchen Mr Miliband was pictured in was used for tea and quick snacks and insisted the familys main kitchen was lovely The poky room the couple were pictured in, albeit with an oven and hob, was revealed last night by a family friend to be a functional kitchenette for tea and quick snacks. The revelation opened up the Labour leader to claims that he was trying to make his family life look more humble than it is, even though his home is reputed to be worth 2.5million. And two kitchens Miliband invites unwelcome comparisons with the controversy over John Prescott for having two Jags. Today Mr Miliband denied choosing to be filmed in the smaller kitchen because it was less imposing. The house we bought had a kitchen downstairs when we bought it, he told the Birmingham Mail . And it is not the one we use. We use the small one upstairs. Pressed again on why he was shown in the smaller kitchen, Mr Miliband added: This is the kitchen Justine and I use. He joked: I think Justine would probably say she wishes Id spend more time in the kitchen. Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine, the wife of Tory chief whip Michael Gove, wrote an article in yesterdays paper sympathising over the forlorn kitchen as depicted on BBC News on Tuesday evening. She wrote: Very rarely do I feel sorry for Ed Miliband, but seeing him standing there in his forlorn little kitchen, staring into the middle distance while sipping from a stripy blue-and-white mug, part of me wanted to rush home from work, sling some jolly painted crockery in a bag and head over there with a tin of home-made brownies. Surely that cant really be Ed and Justines kitchen? All that lovely huge, fancy house, and that is where they do their cooking? I hope for their sake that its actually their utility room, and that some bossy spin doctor has shoved them in there to make their 2million-plus townhouse in North Londons trendy Kentish Town look less fabulous and to bolster Eds man-o-the-people image. In his Christmas card last year, Mr Miliband posed with his wife and children in what appeared to be a larger kitchen . Mrs Miliband, a child actress-turned-barrister, is expected to make a series of high profile appearances in the run-up to polling day . Yesterday this prompted Jenni Russell, the Times political commentator and family friend, to come to the Labour leaders defence by revealing his actual kitchen is lovely. She tweeted: Ed Milibands kitchen is lovely. Daily Mail pix: the functional kitchenette by sitting room for tea and quick snacks. Mr Miliband is godfather to her child. When a Twitter user expressed surprise, she replied: Its not 2 kitchens! More like Times tea prep area. Cant even sit in it. Last night Tory MP Nigel Adams said: Clearly theres no cost of living crisis for Two Kitchens Miliband. Its a bit rich lecturing people about poverty from his 2million mansion. Red Ed can try as much as he likes to portray himself as a man of the people but the only people hes in touch with are the North London metropolitan elite. Last night a Labour Party spokesman declined to comment. 