Lord Young: Peer accused of sleeping during debate demands apology

A Labour peer in the House of Lords has urged a Tory government whip to apologise for suggesting he had fallen asleep during a debate.

Lord Young tried to take part in a debate about regulations on genetically modified organisms late on Monday.

But Lady Bloomfield blocked him from speaking and said she had to send him a note to wake him up.

On Thursday, Lord Young, 79, said peers were "denied my pearls of wisdom" and he wished to "set the record straight".

"When I endeavoured to make a contribution to this debate, I was discourteously dismissed by Baroness Bloomfield on the grounds that she suggested I'd been asleep during the minister's contribution," Lord Young said.

He said he had told the Conservative peer "that wasn't true".

In fact, he said, he had been listening to the debate with his ear against one of the speakers, which are embedded in the House's benches.

"Unfortunately, unlike today, my hearing aid batteries are now in and I'm not reliant on that," added Lord Young.

He said the exchanges on Monday night had damaged his reputation and that of the House of Lords "unnecessarily in my view".

He went on to complain that he had received "what purported to be a letter of apology" from Bloomfield, but said it started with the phrase, "whatever the rights or wrongs".

"It seemed to me that that wasn't really an apology. That was more, shall we say, an equivocation at its best. And I don't accept that that was an apology."

He wanted the government whip to apologise to the House. "That would have been the proper thing to do," he said. "She's chosen to be absent, you can draw what conclusions you like."

He said peers from both sides had approached him after Monday's incident and expressed their concern about "the behaviour which they regarded as appalling and discourteous".

Lady Bloomfield told the BBC she had no further comment to make.