The Waugh Room

Thursday 9th February 2012 | 11:48

Hurley Burley

 

Aidan Burley has come under fire this morning over claims about his conduct during a Holocaust talk in Auschwitz.

A teenager on the trip tweeted to me about Burley's behaviour during a speech on the trip.

But now one friend of Burley's has hit back hard. The friend told me:

"He was not dozing. He didn't doze once. He did go to Auschwitz to get a fuller understanding of the Holocaust. He found it a very moving and humbling experience. During the talk in question, he was sitting next to Dr James Smith, chairman of the Holocaust Centre in Nottingham, who accompanied him during the two day visit.

"Dr Smith says there was no question of him falling asleep. It's not impossible that during the 90 minute talk he briefly answered an urgent message from London. But the suggestion that he was sitting there texting is just ugly and malicious.

"There were other people on the trip who worked out who he was and were aggressive towards him. It's incredibly sad that people are now trying to make political capital out of what was a very solemn and moving two days for Aidan."

 

UPDATE: Ian Austin has raised this in the Chamber in Business Questions just now.

"I'm sorry to say that a student present at a lecture yesterday by a holocaust survivor has complained about conduct during that lecture of the Member for Cannock Chase. Is it not about time the Government sorted this whole affair out by publishing the outcome of the inquiry and organising a debate on the investigation the Prime Minister announced into his involvement…"

It seems that Mr Burley tried to intervene at this point, shouting 'withdraw!', but was cut off by the Speaker.

Mr Austin went on:

"Is it not about time this whole thing is sorted out so we can get to the bottom of his involvement in a party where people chanted Hitler Hitler Hitler and toasted the Third Reich?"

Sir George Young, for the Government, replied: "That is not a matter for the Government, it’s a matter for the party and it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to respond at the despatch box."

 

NEW UPDATE: The student who tweeted me was on a trip organised by his school. One of the teachers on the trip turns out to be a Labour councillor, Dr Suzannah Reeves.

I'm told that Ms Reeves was informed that an MP would be sitting on the lecture and then went up to Mr Burley to ask where he represented. He at first said a seat in Staffordshire. When she pushed further, he said 'Cannock Chase'. The penny dropped and she then said that she'd read about him and knew why he was on the trip.

At that point the group were ushered into the lecture theatre. (Burley had been invited by the Holocaust museum to hear the lecture by a survivor, along with Dr Smith).

After the lecture, Ms Reeves confronted Dr Smith and Burley and (wrongly) assumed the doctor was a Tory aide. Ms Reeves is then alleged to have told Smith and Burley that she knew Ed Miliband...

Dr Smith has released a statement:

"Everything we did in these two days was in need of respect and attention, though as an MP we agreed he may have certain urgent work to respond to. When he replied to a text from London, he was at the back of the hall, out of sight of the survivor. I was sitting next to him and though I was concentrating on the survivor's talk, not Aidan, if he were asleep as has been said, I am sure I would have noticed.

"We have to get some perspective and I think the Burley story is being blown out of all proportion."

There are some on Twitter claiming other witnesses saw Burley asleep: something he vehemently denies. I guess some people would also still love to know what those texts were.

 

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Labour are checking if Ms Reeves knows Mr Miliband personally. A Lab source says: "The political allegiance of the person who witnessed Burley's behaviour in no way undermines the deeply disrespectful nature of that behaviour."