A Labor colleague in the House of Lords has lashed out at the Tory government to apologize for falling asleep during a debate.
Lord Young attempted to engage in a debate on regulations on genetically modified organisms late Monday.
But Lady Bloomfield prevented him from speaking, saying she must text him to wake him up.
On Thursday, Lord Young, 79, said colleagues had “been denied my pearls of wisdom” and that he wanted to “set the record straight”.
“When I tried to contribute to this debate, I was rudely dismissed by Baroness Bloomfield because she claimed I was asleep during the Minister’s intervention,” Lord Young said.
He said he told the Conservative colleague “that wasn’t true”.
In fact, he said, he heard the debate with his ear against one of the speakers seated in the house’s pews.
“Unfortunately my hearing aid batteries are now in there differently than they are today and I don’t depend on them,” added Lord Young.
He said Monday night’s exchange had done “unnecessarily in my view” damage to his reputation and that of the House of Lords.
He went on to complain that he received “an alleged apology letter” from Bloomfield, but said it began with the phrase “regardless of rights or wrongs.”
“It seemed to me that that wasn’t really an apology. That was more of an ambiguity in the best sense. And I don’t accept that that was an apology.”
He wanted the government whip to apologize to the House of Representatives. “That would have been the right thing,” he said. “She chose to be absent, so you can draw whatever conclusions you want.”
He said colleagues from both sides approached him after Monday’s incident and expressed concern at “the behavior, which they saw as appalling and impolite”.
Lady Bloomfield told the BBC she had no further comment to make.
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