When I saw yesterday’s Daily Mail headline attacking UK Energy and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband for building Net Zero on the backs of slave Labour, my immediate reaction was “Here we go again. the opponents of Net Zero clutching at straws.”

However, one of my hard-learnt life lessons is ‘always do a basic fact check before making up your mind.’ So where did this story come from?

Fact Check 1: It seems that Lord Alton had successfully amended the Great British Energy Act to require the UK Goverment’s eponymous Net Zero delivery vehicle to ensure there was no ‘modern slavery’ in the supply chain. It is said that the Government is planning to vote down this amendment when the Bill returns to the House of Commons.

Fact Check 2: So who is this Lord Alton bloke? Is he a foaming-at-the-mouth anti-Net Zero reactionary looking for any old spanner to throw in the works? A quick look at his Twitter feed suggests not – he is dedicated to eradicating the scourge of modern slavery. Good man.

Fact Check 3: So is Alton attacking the ‘tall poppy’ of Net Zero just to promote his favourite cause, or is there substance to the concerns in the sector? It appears that Alton and the other Lords supporting this amendment are quite right – there is a serious issue with modern slavery in the production of polysilicon, a raw material of solar panels, in parts of China. In fact, Action Sustainability has produced a whole guide about it.

Of course the Daily Mail is more interested in having a pop at Ed Miliband and Net Zero than campaigning against modern slavery (Fact Check 4: a quick Google suggests they have recently been more concerned about immigrants claiming asylum on the grounds they were victims of modern slavery). But that doesn’t mean the Daily Mail is always wrong, just that we should draw the right conclusion from the issue: we shouldn’t use this to delay Net Zero, but to redouble our efforts to ensure a just transition.

So thanks to the Mail, I’ve learnt something important about solar panel supply chain risks (which I promptly inserted into a bid to an organisation with strong anti-modern slavery policies). And it’s a reminder to always fact check – even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day. Always be learning, even from unlikely sources.