Victims of press malpractice, including Kate and Gerry McCann, last night accused Prime Minister David Cameron of breaking four promises made in the wake of the hacking scandal.

The first of these is the main “stick” for the press in the Crime and Courts Act 2012 which said that publications which weren’t members of an officially recognised regulator would pay both sides’ costs in libel cases even if they won.

In October last year, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale indicated that this clause of the Act may never be enacted.