John Alexander Melvin Hemming (born 16 March 1960) is a British Liberal Democrat politician and businessman who served as the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley from 2005 until 2015.

He was beaten into fourth place by the "Silly Party" candidate – the pet dog of the master of St Catherine's College, Oxford.

[6][7] Hemming was a candidate in Birmingham seats at all general elections since 1983: in that year at (Hall Green), 1987 (Small Heath) and 1992, 1997 and 2001 (Yardley) before winning in 2005.

[15] Hemming is an opponent of super- and hyper-injunctions,[16] and in March 2011, used parliamentary privilege to reveal the existence of a super-injunction granted to former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Fred Goodwin during a sitting of the House of Commons.

[23][24] Hemming also aided the case of financial journalist Leah McGrath Goodman, who was banned from the UK for two years during her reporting work on the Jersey child abuse investigation 2008 and Haut de la Garenne.

[27][28] During this debate, he posted extracts from un-redacted documents which named the children of the woman involved, potentially breaking a court order.

Confirming that it was Hemming who had broken the site's terms and conditions by revealing posters' identities, Mumsnet removed the documents that he had posted and he was subsequently suspended as a website user.

[30][31] Hemming stood again as the Liberal Democrat candidate in his old seat at the 2017 general election,[32] but was defeated by Jess Phillips who increased her majority.

[34] In January 2019, Hemming successfully brought libel cases against Graham Wilmer, of the Lantern Project charity and David Hencke, a journalist who worked for Exaro.

Hemming went on to state: "I am not myself aware of another situation where members and supporters of a political party have promoted such allegations in such a public manner – essentially arming the villagers with torches and pitchforks and setting off on a lynching.

"[36] Shortly after his election in 2005, it was revealed that he was the father of a child with his personal assistant and (then) fellow councillor Emily Cox, although he continued to live with his wife and the couple's three children.