TONY BLAIR has ignored critics of patronage by allowing four senior ministers to keep their plush grace-and-favour residences despite the Cabinet reshuffle.

Two ministers who have moved from highly sensitive jobs to more mundane positions have been told by the Prime Minister that they can keep their free homes in London’s most sought-after residential areas as a perk of the job.

The most surprising decision involves Geoff Hoon, who was demoted in the reshuffle from the high-security role of Defence Secretary to the housekeeping position of Leader of the Commons.

He will continue to live in his apartment in Admiralty House in Whitehall.

David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, was allowed by Mr Blair to remain in his elegant Belgravia home after resigning last December in the row over the speeded-up visa for his former lover’s nanny. He was allowed to continue to live there as part of a review of his security arrangements. Downing Street has made clear that he can stay on in the house in his new role as Work and Pensions Secretary.

Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, who is not deemed to require special security, is also being allowed to keep her home in the 18th-century Admiralty House in Whitehall. It has cost the taxpayer more than £850,000 to maintain since the last general election.

Mrs Beckett, one of Mr Blair's most trusted ministers, claimed £50,000 in Commons expenses for a house in her Derby constituency which she owns outright.

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, also has a flat in the building, where in November he entertained the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to try to end their increasingly public rift.

The Deputy Prime Minister also enjoys the added perk of the 214-acre Dorneywood country estate in Buckinghamshire, which he uses once a month. The 21-room Queen Anne mansion, complete with swimming pool and tennis courts, costs £400,000 a year.

The properties, which are worth about £7 million, could generate up to £300,000 in rent for the taxpayer each year. The ministers all continue to live in the homes under a scheme in which the Prime Minister has the right to choose which ministers can live rent-free in the centre of London.

Before the election Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman in the House of Lords, wrote to Downing Street seeking clarification of the basis on which the Prime Minister gave Mrs Beckett, Mr Prescott and Mr Hoon free Central London homes. He has not had a reply.

Lord Oakeshott, who will write to the Prime Minister again, said: “In a 21st-century parliamentary democracy the Prime Minister should not hand out free flats like a mediaeval king rewarding his courtiers. It is high time Britain had a clear, objective and public system for allocating tax-payer funded ministerial residences.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said last night: “There are to be no changes. They are all remaining where they were.

“It is in the personal gift of the Prime Minister if they stay or go. Part of the criteria is security.”

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