Conservative Shadow Minister Tim Loughton said that children’s welfare issues such as the Baby P debate were too “dull and gory” to discuss at an Oxford Conservative Association dinner.
When approached by a Daily Mirror journalist for comment, the MP claimed that the Cherwell reporter present had been drunk and misquoted him.
However, others present have confirmed that the student journalist had not drunk any alcohol, and the reporter stands by the quotations in their article.
The article (‘OCA: Now we care and share’, 5 March) reported a speech given by Loughton, currently Shadow Minister for Children, at a Conservative Association event.
The dinner, which had been advertised as a launch of the Oxford Conservative Association’s new policy document on social inequality and mobility, was held at the exclusive Landsdowne private member’s club in London.
Before the speech Loughton said that discussing child issues such as Baby P would be “too dull and gory for this time of night,” and instead spoke about a Channel Four documentary he had recently participated in, in which members of parliament were sent to live in problem-area estates.
He described one residence in the Birmingham estate he was assigned to as “a complete crap hole”.
When contacted by the national newspaper’s political correspondent for a comment on what was said, Loughton denied these claims and said he believed the journalist present had been drunk.
“She was quite pissed and must have been mistaken,” Loughton told the correspondent. The newspaper subsequently dropped the story.
However, a guest at the dinner who has no ties to the Oxford Conservative Association, said, “I spoke to [the reporter] at dinner and we had a conversation about how she does not drink wine. I can confirm that she did not drink anything at all.
“In fact at the end of the meal, when we were splitting the bill, she raised the point again that she had not drunk wine and so did not wish to be charged for it. All guests were party to this conversation,” they said.
Camilla Turner, who covered the story, said “I have comprehensive notes of what was said, and was not drunk, as has been shown. If Loughton’s office really had a problem with it, it seems to me they would have complained when the article first went up on the Cherwell website a couple of weeks ago.”
When Loughton’s office was contacted by Cherwell for a comment, it said that “Tim gave no approval for any quotes.”
“As Tim did not make those remarks he has nothing to retract,” a spokesperson from his office said.
Loughton hit headlines on Thursday for arguing that children should be prosecuted for having sex under the age of sixteen.
