The Press Complaints Commission dealt with a record 4,340 complaints in 2007, a rise of 31 per cent on 2006.

Two cases in particular caused the increase in the total number of complaints and generated hundreds of complaints from members of the public.

The first was a comment piece about the parents of Madeline McCann in the Daily Mirror by Tony Parsons in which he criticised the Portuguese police and the country’s ambassador, who complained personally, which caused 485 complaints.