David Cameron stirred controversy last night after allowing ITN cameras to film him at home to illustrate an announcement that he will make at his party’s spring conference today on family-friendly policies.

Politicians have generally been wary about accusations that they are “using” their families for party purposes, but Mr Cameron and his aides were utterly unrepentant last night. They insisted that showing voters more about the people who are at the centre of his life is entirely legitimate.

But he may have been entering a minefield because his actions were sharply in contrast to the practice so far adopted by Gordon Brown.

The Prime Minister will not comment publicly on Mr Cameron’s decision, but it is a racing certainty that if he is asked whether he would allow similar treatment for his own family he will say no.

A friend of Mr Brown said last night that he took a firm line on the issue and had asked newspapers and broadcasters not to use pictures of his sons.

“What he says to friends is that he made his own choice to go into politics and public life, but that he will not make that choice for his children.”

Mr Cameron was pictured at breakfast time with his wife Samantha and three children, Ivan, aged 5, who is disabled, Nancy, 4, and Arthur, 3.

The Conservative leader was shown playing with his children and asking what cereals they wanted. His wife, who is rarely interviewed, spoke of how regimented the family needed to be to get out of the house on time.

Mr Cameron knew that what he was doing was controversial, but according to close aides it was not the first time his family had been pictured and he felt it was justified.

“David did not find this too difficult. He was about to make announcements on family policy and it is only right that voters should see his family. It is his family which makes him tick. And he would have had no qualms about Ivan being in the filmed extracts,” a friend said. “Ivan is so much part of the family that he would have to be there,” he added.

Asked whether he thought it would be controversial, he said that “people want to know what you are like and what makes you tick — that is modern politics. People want to know a bit about your life. That is natural.” He added it was important voters did not think politicians were a breed apart.

Tony Blair was regularly photographed with his family during his 10 years at Number 10.

They liked privacy on holidays and usually had an agreement with the press for pictures to be taken when they arrived at their destination, and for them then to be left alone for the remainder.

According to Labour sources, focus group polling suggests that the public do not like politicians displaying their families in public and officials claimed to be mystified by Mr Cameron’s decision last night. One problem for the Tory leader is that it may be harder for him to claim privacy for his children later int heir lives — for example over choice of schools — if he has chosen so openly to allow publicity for them as young children.

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