Ministers 'should give up grace-and-favour homes'

Harriet Harman said it was essential for Gordon Brown to make the move to help restore voters' trust in politics.

Miss Harman told the Daily Mail that the right of all ministers to official residences should be scrapped, except that of the Prime Minister to use Chequers.

Her comments came as the battle for the deputy leadership job got off to a distinctly low-key start with almost all the candidates calling for party unity.

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Chequers: The PM should be allowed to keep this grace-and-favour home, according to Harman

Miss Harman said she would refuse Dorneywood, the Queen Anne-style mansion set in 214 acres of National Trust parkland in Buckinghamshire, if she becomes Mr Brown's deputy and was offered it.

Deputy Premier John Prescott fell in love with the nine-bedroom retreat, where he was pictured playing croquet while supposed to be running the country in Tony Blair's absence.

John Prescott famously played croquet at grace-and-favour home Dorneywood

Miss Harman's call came as the six candidates for Labour's deputy leadership went head-to-head in the first of a series of hustings.

Though the Chancellor is remaining studiously neutral, Miss Harman appears to be emerging as the favoured Brownite candidate.

The Justice Minister has secured the public backing of a host of Mr Brown's key allies, including ministers Alistair Darling, Douglas Alexander and Yvette Cooper, as well as his close political friend Nick Brown, tipped to become his chief whip.

Senior figures in the party believe Miss Harman has appeal to women and middle-class voters, particularly in the South-East.

Her call for the use of official residences by Cabinet ministers to be scrapped chimes with Mr Brown's promise of a more "austere" Government than that led by Mr Blair.

"The Prime Minister should retain the right to use Chequers, for when foreign leaders come to stay," Miss Harman said. "But other than that, private use of these residences can't be justified. I think we have got to win back the trust and confidence of the British people.

"That's not just about setting out our policies for the future, it's about how we actually do our politics.

"These great historic buildings should be used for things that are in the public interest."

Mr Brown has already indicated that he will make less use of Chequers, the official Prime Ministerial residence in the Chilterns, at which Mr Blair spends as many weekends as possible.

Mr Brown, by contrast, will return home to Scotland with his young family whenever he can.

As well as Dorneywood, Miss Harman's proposal would mean three ministerial apartments in Admiralty House – worth £7million together and costing more than £300,000 a year – being sold off or put to different use.

Also to go would be Chevening, a 115-room Kent mansion, and a Grade One-listed building in London's Carlton House Gardens, both traditionally used by the Foreign Secretary.

At yesterday's hustings all the candidates backed plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations, expected to be confirmed in a White Paper this week.

But party chairman Hazel Blears clashed with the one backbench candidate, Jon Cruddas, over the extent of private sector involvement in public services.

Alan Johnson, the bookies' favourite, argued social mobility should be Labour's focus, conceding it was harder to escape the shackles of a poor upbringing in Britain than in "practically any other country in the world".

Peter Hain criticised his rivals for suggesting that the deputy leader should focus on party matters and stay aloof from policy-making.