Fred the Shred gag order lifted - The Sun

SIR Fred Goodwin had a secret affair with a senior colleague while he was the boss of RBS, The Sun can finally reveal today.

A draconian court gag preventing us from naming Fred the Shred as the banker behind a super-injunction wasd dramatically lifted this afternoon.

We won the right to formally name the banker after a Lib Dem peer sensationally spoke out in the House of Lords earlier today.

Fred the Shred's banning order prevented publication of details of a "sexual relationship".

It was scrapped after Lord Stoneham, speaking on behalf of Lord Oakeshott in the House of Lords, used Parliamentary privilege to expose details of the injunction.

He asked what steps the Government will take "to ensure that the public interest is taken into account in the granting of super-injunctions".

Video: Fred the Shred gag bombshell

SIR Fred Goodwin is named in House of Lords super-injunction debate

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Lord Stoneham went on: "Would he accept that every taxpayer has a direct public interest in the events leading up to the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland?

"So how can it be right for a super-injunction to hide the alleged relationship between Sir Fred Goodwin and a senior colleague?

"If true, it would be a serious failure of corporate governance and not even the Financial Services Authority would be allowed to know about it."

Justice minister Lord McNally replied: "I do not think it is proper for me, from this dispatch box, to comment on individual cases, some of which are before the courts."

Ex-RBS boss Goodwin presided over the bank's near-collapse during the financial crisis.

He stood down in January 2009, just a month before the bank announced its total losses for 2008 were 24.1billion - the largest annual loss in UK corporate history.

It was only saved thanks to a massive bail-out from the public purse.

In March, Lib Dem MP John Hemming used Parliamentary privilege to reveal Goodwin used an injunction to ban the media from calling him a "banker".

Today Mr Hemming, who used parliamentary privilege in March to disclose the existence of Sir Fred's super-injunction, said: "The decision to lift the anonymity of Fred Goodwin today is a small victory for free speech. It is, however, a victory.

"I think the judiciary recognise which way the wind is blowing. However, what they really need to do is to change tack."

So-called super-injunctions are used to ban the reporting of certain facts, and media are even prevented from stating the injunction has been won.