MP John Hemming banned from Mumsnet after revealing the identity of users

Birmingham MP John Hemming allegedly breached a court order by mistakenly naming an Italian woman who was sectioned, then forced to give birth, before having her baby taken away from her. He had been fighting her case, saying the council had no right to behave as it did.

But when discussing the court case on Mumsnet, he allegedly posted Italian court documents in which the woman's name and those of her children had not been blacked out. Under family law, all identities have to remain anonymous.

Mumsnet deemed this a breach of its rules and had Mr Hemming banned.

The controversial Lib Dem, who represents Yardley, was also accused of making 'drunken' posts on a discussion forum on the popular website. A statement on Mr Hemming's blog from the organisation said: "It is against our talk guidelines to post information which would 'out' a poster, as a couple of your posts on here have done, due to your posts containing links to posters' personal Twitter accounts which give their real names.

"We've had to suspend your account until you get in touch."

Mr Hemming, 53, said that he had inadvertently named the woman and her family involved in the Italian court case. He also admitted he had inadvertently revealed the identities of Mumsnet contributors by posting links to their Twitter accounts, which gave their real names.

A statement from Mumsnet said: "Although we don't formally verify the identity of our users, we believe that it is John Hemming MP posting on Mumsnet. He has been posting for some time.

"Before Christmas, he was involved in a long discussion surrounding the forced Caesarian/adoption case. He posted a long transcript of Italian court proceedings which named some of the mother's children, which is in breach of UK reporting restrictions on the case. It was reported to us by John Hemming and by other users so in accordance with our guidelines, we deleted the post.

"John Hemming was also reported for posting information that linked to Mumsnet users' real names, which is against our ethos, and so we suspended him from the site on 21/12/13.

"After a cooling off period while we review the things that lead to the suspension we will decide on the best way forward."