Poll: Ryan Giggs named as the footballer at centre of privacy controversy

The footballer at the centre of a controversial gagging order over a relationship with reality TV star Imogen Thomas has this afternoon finally been named as Manchester United star Ryan Giggs by an MP in the Commons.

Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, who has been campaigning on the issue, said it was not practical to imprison the 75,000 Twitter followers who have already named the star player.

He used parliamentary privilege to identify the star at the centre of the injunction just minutes after the High Court refused to lift a ban on naming the sportsman who had a relationship with the Big Brother star.

During the Commons debate on the use of injunctions, Mr Hemming used Parliamentary privilege to name the Premier League star and also identify a journalist said to be facing the threat of prison after allegedly breaching an injunction.

The issue has been running for a number of weeks after Twitter users began to leak the name of the former Wales international, one of the most decorated British footballers of all time after a long and distinguished career.

Only yesterday the 37-year-old was celebrating winning the Premier League title for an incredible twelfth time, but now he has been named.

It follows many editorials in newspapers all around the country arguing that the privacy law was not fair, including one Sunday newspaper in Scotland running a picture that was clearly Giggs with just a 'censored' strip across the Welshman's eyes yesterday.

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