Tory MP denies making famine remark in Commons

A senior Conservative MP has denied mocking the Irish famine during a debate in the House of Commons.

Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith was accused of making an “offensive” remark about the famine when he addressed the chamber on Wednesday.

More than one million people died during the famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1852 after the potato crop failed.

Responding to a question in the Commons, the shadow secretary said he was not sure if a person could “subsist entirely on a seed potato”, before adding: “It may have been tried historically and not with enormous success”.

Labour MP Adam Jogee challenged the remark in a point of order in the Commons on Thursday which he said appeared to reference the Irish potato famine.

But in a statement to BBC News NI, Andrew Griffith said he made “no reference to Ireland whatsoever” and “if you read the debate, you would see that is clearly the case”.

He added: “At no point was Mr Jogee in the chamber to represent his own constituents or to hear my remarks in context.”

The shadow secretary was responding to a question from a Liberal Democrat MP about getting Scottish seed potatoes into the European market when he made the remark.

When his reply was quoted in the chamber by Mr Jogee, one MP could be heard saying “shocking”.

The Labour MP, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on Ireland, asked the commons deputy Speaker how best to “remedy any offence”.

“These words appear to be referencing the tragedy of the Irish potato famine, which, if true, is of course offensive and insensitive and would have taken place in the United Kingdom,” he said.

The deputy speaker said the chair was not responsible for the shadow secretary of state’s remarks.