Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley is to report law firm Carter Ruck to the Law Society for seeking to gag reports of Parliamentary proceedings.

Mr Bottomley made his intentions clear during Prime Minister’s question time this afternoon following the firm sensationally backing down from pursuing an injunction preventing The Guardian from reporting a question relating to oil company Trafigura.

In response, Gordon Brown said Justice Secretary Jack Straw is to examine the use of "super injunctions”.

Mr Brown said the granting of secret injunctions, which not only ban reporting of a story but also of the existence of the ban itself, was an "unfortunate area of the law".

Mr Bottomley said: "No Court should grant such an order and I intend to report them to the Law Society for asking for the injunction."

He called for details of secret or emergency injunctions to be placed in the House of Commons library and the Press Gallery and added that any such order should be reviewed the next working day at the Court of Appeal.

Mr Brown said: "This is an issue where an injunction has been awarded but it has been awarded in the context where it has to remain secret and people are not told what the outcome is generally.

"The Justice Secretary has talked to the parties concerned and is looking into this issue."

He told Mr Bottomley: "I hope that on the basis of what you suggest progress can be made not just in this case but more generally to clear up what is an unfortunate area of the law."

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger yesterday hailed a "great victory for free speech" and said lawyers had "caved in" over the order which prevented reporting of a question asked by Labour's Paul Farrelly.

After the Guardian posted a story spelling out what they were unable to report as a result of the gag, blogs and Twitter users quickly moved to uncover the information for themselves, which meant by yesterday morning Trafigura, The Guardian and Carter Ruck were the most-discussed topics on Twitter.

The effect has been described by Mr Rusbridger as an "own goal" in PR terms.

In a statement, Carter Ruck said: "There is no question of Trafigura seeking to 'gag' the media from reporting parliamentary proceedings, and the parties have now agreed to an amendment to the existing order so as to reflect that."