Carter-Ruck's Athalie Matthews (pictured above) analyses the 'Hemming effect' as the controversy over injunctions rages on

During a parliamentary debate about injunctions on 23 May, the Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming (pictured below) outed a footballer, whose name you consequently know, by identifying him as the man alleged to have had an affair with Imogen Thomas.

With a few choice words and in just a few seconds, Hemming had reduced to nought the huge efforts of the claimant's lawyers to keep his identity a secret and ridden roughshod over three judgments of Mr Justice Eady who on 14 May had granted an injunction against Thomas and News Group Newspapers which anonymised the claimant, referring to him only as 'CTB'. Hemming had in March done a similar favour to Sir Fred Goodwin, creating another early day commotion.