Mumsnet bans MP over misuse

A Birmingham MP has been barred from Mumsnet after revealing the identities of other users and inadvertently publishing the name of an Italian woman whose baby was taken from her after being forced to have a Caesarean section.

Liberal Democrat John Hemming said his account on the popular internet forum had been suspended and he had been “put on the naughty step” after breaching its rules.

The MP for Birmingham Yardley had reportedly admitted to making some posts on the site after drinking alcohol, telling other members: “I am not sober, but I am right.”

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On his blog, he insisted the messages that got him kicked off had been made while sober.

“As the story has developed people have concentrated on the issue as to what effect alcohol had,” he wrote on Monday.

“In fact the post that caused me to be suspended was one I wrote at 9.35 on a Saturday morning when I was sober without a hangover.”

Mr Hemming is one of the more colourful figures in the House of Commons, once voting for himself in a newspaper phone poll to identify the Love Rat of the Year after an affair with his researcher became public.

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He also used parliamentary privilege to name Ryan Giggs as the footballer at the centre of a legal action over a newspaper story about an affair while a court order banning identification was in place.