London, Sept. 16 : Britain’s Home Secretary Jacqui Smith cleaned toilets on a ferry to raise enough money to go to the Glastonbury Festival and pay for Duran Duran records, she has disclosed.

In an interview given to a women''''s magazine as part of an effort to soften Labour''''s image and show a more human side, The Telegraph quoted Smith and her women colleagues as saying that some of Labour''''s most senior female ministers led very humble lifestyles as young women, and spent their time claiming benefits to try to make ends meet.

Apart from Smith, the others who led hard lives were Tessa Jowell, Yvette Cooper, Harriet Harman, Ruth Kelly, Hazel Blears and Caroline Flint.

Smith said: "I cleaned the cabins, and the toilets, too! I''''d spend my money on Glastonbury or Duran Duran records."

Yvette Cooper, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, recalled that as a 25-year-old she was suffering from ME and was "unable to work or get out of the flat much." Three years later, she was elected an MP.

Caroline Flint, the housing minister, said: "I didn''''t get into a lot of debt, but there was a period when I claimed benefits, because I was a single parent. I was pretty hard up and had to rent a flat with friends. I didn''''t own a property until I got together with my present husband in the late 1980s."

Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, describes her trouble finding a job as a solicitor.

"The worst experience I had was being asked by a senior partner what contraception I was using," she says.

"He said they couldn''''t afford to employ a woman who was going to get pregnant."

Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, said: "I was in a flat in Edinburgh, for which we paid 13 shillings and six pence (67.5p) a month, because it was condemned and had a shared lavatory."

The interviews are published in the September edition of Company magazine. (ANI)