Following the news that the Commissioner for Standards has ruled that Ian Paisley failed to register a holiday to the Maldives, Sinn Feins Philip McGuigan has called on the DUP to ‘take action’ against North Antrim MP
This isn’t the first time Mr Paisley has failed to declare holidays, with the MP having been suspended from sitting at Westminster for 30 days back in 2018 after not declaring two family holidays paid by the Sri Lankin Goverment, with the then speaker of the house, John Bercow calling it “a regrettable state of affairs”.
At that time a recall petition was triggered against Mr Paisley to remove him from his Westminster seat, but after six weeks the petition failed to reach 10% of the constituents signatures to trigger a by election, so retaining his seat
Now following an investigation into a 2016 family trip which Mr Paisley said was paid in part by himself and in part by a friend, the Commission for Standards has now ruled that the “balance of probabilities that a corporate body rather than a personal friend of Mr Paisley’s had absorbed the cost of the hospitality”.
Reacting to the news Sinn Fein MLP Philip McGuigan has said: “Today the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in the House of Commons has ruled that Ian Paisley MP failed to register a luxury holiday to the Maldives.
“Ian Paisley had said the holiday was ‘partially funded by a long-standing personal friend’”.
“The Commissioner for Standards has ruled this not to be the case, but ‘that a corporate body’, rather than a personal friend of Mr Paisley’s, had absorbed the cost of the hospitality.”
“How many times will Ian Paisley have to display outright contempt for the public and transparency before the DUP take action against his rogue activities? This is the latest in a series of scandals involving Ian Paisley and is another two fingers up to the people of North Antrim by the MP.
“The DUP leadership need to take action against this MP.”
Despite todays ruling, Mr Paisley will not face any other sanctions over this matter and has since added the trip to the MP’s register. The investigation also found that the trip was not funded by a foreign Government so did not breach any rules surrounding ‘paid advocacy’.
TUV leader Jim Allister has said Mr Paisley ‘damaged the good name of his constituency’:
“Today’s report by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner would lead one to conclude that Mr Paisley is very lucky in his friends. He has told the Commissioner that the holiday in the Maldives was paid for by a friend, a friend he hadn’t met for 7 or 8 years, who he first met 10 years before and only met a couple of times since and yet he paid for this holiday. I do think that many people in North Antrim are growing weary of Mr Paisley’s excuses.
“How many of us have found ourselves discovering only when checking out that our hotel stay was complimentary? That, according to Mr Paisley, is what happened during his visit to the Maldives! Yet, he says he didn’t even contact the benefactor to say “thanks”.
“The report finds that the MP for North Antrim has, again, broken the rules on the registration of overseas visits and describes her decision not to take more robust action as ‘finely balanced’. So, Mr Paisley’s reaction to these findings should be humility.
“Once again he has damaged the good name of his constituency and damaged Unionism as a brand.”
