A newly-elected MLC says he is considering legal action following reports he has questioned Holocaust numbers and events of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Swearing in of new members of the Legislative Council is normally a sedate affair not clouded by controversy.

But this week’s event has been overshadowed by reports in the Jewish Chronicle concerning comments posted on X/formerly Twitter by new MLC Gary Clueit.

He secured his seat in the upper chamber after picking up 13 votes in the first round of voting in last week’s LegCo elections.

But this week he was forced on the defensive after the Jewish Chronicle ran a story about him under the headline: ‘Politician who questioned how many Jews were killed in Holocaust gets seat on Isle of Man Parliament’.

Mr Clueit, an engineer and businessman who moved to the island with his wife in 2019, stated ahead of the election that he had no interest in being paid for his role as MLC.

Asked about the report, he told Media IoM that he had been the victim of a ‘vendetta’ by local campaigner Michael Josem, who first raised concerns about the comments made on social media and shared screen shots of them with all MHKs ahead of the LegCo election.

Mr Clueit said: ‘At the moment I am meeting with my legal counsel and we will decide over the new couple of days what course of action we’re taking and against who, and I will issue a formal response probably in the next couple of days - I just haven’t had time to catch my breath.’

He said recognised some of the posts that had been reported - but ‘one of two I don’t’.

Mr Clueit added: ‘All I will say is that they are all completely out of context. And that is key.’

He said he had written to MHKs before last week’s vote so that they were fully aware of his stance. He said this will form part of his public statement.

Asked if he regretted any of the comments he’d made, he replied: ‘No, because of the context.’

He confirmed he was a supporter of Palestinian rights and said: ‘You have to understand, Mr Josem has been on a vendetta against me for over three years. Go and look at his website.’

Asked if he was anti-Semitic, he replied: ‘No, absolutely not.’

Asked if he was a Holocaust denier, he replied: ‘No, I am not, absolutely not.’

He confirmed that he had a question over the numbers killed in the Holocaust but said this could be up or down and said: ‘I will explain that fully’. He added: ‘There are many others beside Jews who perished in the Holocaust.’

Mr Clueit was also asked about comments which he had posted on the October 7 Hamas attacks, which disputed whether women were raped or babies abducted. ‘I’m not sure what I posted. Yes there were - and are - questions,’ he said.

Asked if it was appropriate to post such comments on social media, he replied: ‘I will leave that for you to judge. As I say context is everything.’

Mr Clueit previously stood as a candidate for LegCo in 2023.

On his member’s profile on the Tynwald website, he lists his interests as entomology, politics, economics, ecology, history and housing .

During his first Legislative Council sitting, Mr Clueit was elected to serve as a LegCo member of Tynwald’s standards and members’ interests committee.