David Burt, the Premier, has dismissed a trip to meet would-be gaming operators in New York as a “figment of the imagination” of the former government.

The purported trip, a source of controversy in social media in the run-up to the July General Election, was mentioned by Opposition leader Patricia Gordon-Pamplin in her Reply to the Throne Speech on Friday.

Ms Gordon-Pamplin told MPs: “We will watch closely the developments of the questionable New York trip that was planned by an unlikely quartet with would-be gaming operators to determine the purpose of their meeting at the Four Seasons, and the benefit to Bermuda, if any.”

The comment relates to a purported trip Mr Burt, then Opposition leader, was going to take with Progressive Labour Party MP Zane DeSilva, and former independent MPs Mark Pettingill and Shawn Crockwell.

Responding during the Throne Speech debate later in the day, Mr Burt said: “There was no trip to meet with, as I quote, ‘would-be gaming operators’.

“It was a figment of the imagination of the One Bermuda Alliance and those persons of whom they wanted to put in the campaign.”

Documents purporting to show confirmation of the group’s booking at the Four Seasons Hotel on June 11 were widely circulated online and on social media before the General Election on July 18.

The trip was set to take place the day after Mr Crockwell was found dead at his Hamilton Parish home.

Mr Burt described the Reply to the Throne Speech as “disgusting”, and dubbed Ms Gordon-Pamplin the “Princess of Pettiness”.

He called the portion of Ms Gordon-Pamplin’s reply focusing on the New York trip as “below and beneath the dignity” of the House.

Mr DeSilva described the information pertaining to the trip as “false”.

The social development minister said: “They have no clue.”

“The honourable Opposition leader has quoted something that was on social media. Or did she get it from a friend in the police force maybe?

“Or someone that had access to Mr Shawn Crockwell’s phone?”

He described the Reply to the Throne Speech as a document that “almost in its entirety needs to disappear”.

Asked by The Royal Gazette in July about the booking, Mr Burt said that “people should be very concerned if items that are in police custody are given to members of political campaigns”.

The Premier used his debate time to paint the OBA as the party of the past and the PLP as the future.

“Their ideas are from a bygone era, and our ideas and plans are for the future of this country,” Mr Burt said.

“The reason why you are over there is because you didn’t listen enough to the people and stakeholders in this country.”

Mr Burt touched upon the Tax Reform Commission, Economic Diversification Unit, loan guarantees for sports clubs, and the return to a two-tier public school system within his address.