Irving sent packing from Liverpool

Sonia Gable | Friday, 11 January 2008 Source: Searchlight

A meeting organised by the notorious David Irving was cancelled 24 hours before it was to take place after Searchlight learned of the booking at a Liverpool hotel.

The convicted Holocaust denier was going to speak to an audience of up to 20 people at the Liner Hotel on Saturday 12 January, after failing to secure an invitation to Liverpool's universities. The room had been booked falsely under the name of the Liverpool Historical Society.

Irving's presence would have cast a shadow over the launch of city's year as the European capital of culture.

The hotel's guest services manager told Searchlight that he knew nothing about David Irving but became concerned when we mentioned Irving's attempt to speak at the Oxford Union. Uncertain whether he could cancel the meeting because the organisers had paid for the room in advance, he said he would discuss the matter with the police.

But after the hotel was contacted on Friday 11 January by Alec McFadden, President of Merseyside TUC, the meeting was quickly cancelled.

Soon afterwards Irving's website announced that the meeting had been cancelled "on police advice" and promised that "a full refund will be made". The audience would not have got much for their money as no refreshments had been booked. Irving thanked "Bob J and his friends who had organised".

In fact the room had been booked by Michael Sheil, who stood as a British National Party local election candidate in Liverpool in 2003 - so much for Irving's constant denials that he has any contact with the BNP.