Ruth Kelly this afternoon played the motherhood card as she faced the media to explain why she is sending one of her children to a private school.
It won't be enough to save the former education secretary from "hypocrite" headlines in the press and on blogs like Guido Fawkes or from the fury of Labour backbenchers.
Whether it exonerates her in the court of public opinion depends on the severity of her child's learning problems - though that may not be a strictly logical response.
But as the minister in charge of a policy of closing special schools - 120 in England since Labour came to power - at a time when the architect of inclusive education Baroness Warnock had admitted the policy was flawed, Ms Kelly can expect little quarter in political circles.
It's certainly a gift to David Cameron, who can be sympathetic - "we parents of vulnerable children" - but point up his own conversion to state education.
Tony Blair's decision to send his children to a school that had opted out of local authority control angered Labour activists but did him little harm with the wider public at the time - but then he was still using the state sector that his government was making a priority.
Diane Abbott, on the other hand, was seen as a hypocrite for using a private school despite her left-wing rhetoric.
Perhaps Ms Kelly would have done better to be open with the voters to start with - however painful it would have been as a mother.
