Miliband in hot water over nappy

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Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has incurred the wrath of eco-aware mothers by admitting he uses disposable nappies for his six-month-old son.

Mr Miliband claimed on the mumsnet site that disposables used little more energy than reusables once laundry was taken into account.

But mumsnet members said he failed to take the impact of disposable nappies on landfill sites into account.

And they claimed the 2005 Environment Agency report he cited was flawed.

They said the report overstated the number of reusable nappies families would get through and it assumed all of the nappies would be washed at a high temperature, tumble-dried and ironed.

A 2008 update on the study said cloth nappies could be more environmentally-friendly if they were washed in a way that did not use much energy.

About three billion disposable nappies are thrown away each year in the UK, making up around 4% of household waste going to landfill.

'Greener nappies'

In his mumsnet webchat, Mr Miliband justified the choice of disposables for his son Daniel, saying: "We use disposable nappies and actually an Environment Agency report from 2005 said that when you take into account the use of energy in washing and drying nappies, it evens out."

He added: "There are greener disposable nappies, which we are trying."

One mumsnet poster swiftly replied: "Oh dear. That report was very flawed, Mr Miliband, and doesn't take into account the landfill aspect."

Another wrote: "I think that report about the nappies didn't take lots of things into account and said that you needed 24 washable nappies and that you tumble dry them all the time which no one does."

And the poster who first asked the question, calling herself StewieGriffinsMom, said: "The Environment Agency report assumes that people dry and iron their nappies and that people only use them for one child.

"Most people who use nappies do not iron or dry them and everyone re-uses nappies. Mine are on their fourth child ...

"The Environment Agency report was poorly researched and lacked a basic understanding of how people actually use cloth nappies."

Mr Miliband is the latest frontline politician to face a grilling from mumsnet members but unlike Prime Minister Gordon Brown he had no hesitation in naming his favourite biscuit - a Jaffa cake, undunked.

But when asked if he was "shaping up for an imminent leadership contest with Gordon Brown", he responded: "Absolutely not."