A fellow Labor member in the House of Lords urged a Tory government whip to apologize for suggesting he had fallen asleep during a debate.
Lord Young tried to participate in a debate on the regulations of genetically modified organisms on Monday night.
But Lady Bloomfield stopped him from speaking and said that she had to send him a note to wake him up.
On Thursday, Lord Young, 79, said his colleagues were “denied my pearls of wisdom” and he wanted to “set the record straight”.
“When I tried to make a contribution to this debate, I was rudely dismissed by Baroness Bloomfield because she suggested that I had been asleep during the minister’s contribution,” said Lord Young.
He said he had told the fellow Conservative that “that wasn’t true.”
In fact, he said, he had been listening to the debate with his ear to one of the speakers, who are recessed into the House benches.
“Unfortunately, unlike today, my hearing aid batteries are now ready and I don’t depend on it,” added Lord Young.
He said Monday night’s exchanges had damaged his reputation and that of the House of Lords “unnecessarily in my opinion”.
He went on to complain that he had received “what purported to be a letter of apology” from Bloomfield, but said that it began with the phrase, “whatever rights or wrongs.”
“I thought that wasn’t really an apology. That was more, let’s say, a misnomer at best. And I don’t accept that that was an apology.”
He wanted the government whip to apologize to the House. “That would have been the right thing to do,” she said. “She has chosen to be absent, you can draw whatever conclusions you want.”
He said colleagues from both sides approached him after Monday’s incident and expressed concern about “what they considered appalling and impolite behavior.”
Lady Bloomfield told the BBC she had no further comment.
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