Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has risked blotting his copybook on the environment by admitting he uses disposable nappies for his six-month-old son Daniel.
Taking part in an internet chat on parents' website mumsnet.com, Mr Miliband cited an Environment Agency report which suggested that the energy impact of disposable nappies was little more than for traditional reusable ones, once laundering them is taken into account.
But he was taken to task by several posters on the site, who insisted the 2005 report overestimated the number of nappies families would get through, and assumed all of them would be washed at a high temperature, tumble-dried and ironed.
Mr Miliband at least avoided some of the pitfalls which have caught out other politicians taking part in chats on the site.
Unlike Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he was quick to name his favourite biscuit - a jaffa cake, undunked.
And unlike Conservative leader David Cameron, who was criticised for responding too slowly, Mr Miliband was commended for the "blistering" pace of his typing and his swift replies to a range of questions.
When asked if he was "shaping up for an imminent leadership contest with Gordon Brown," he responded: "Absolutely not."
Nappies are a vexed issue for environmentally-conscious parents because about three billion of the disposable variety are thrown away each year, making up about 4% of household waste going to landfill.
