Row over British MP’s £100k holiday

LONDON: Ian Paisley, an MP from theNorthernIreland-basedDemocratic Unionist Party on whose supporttheTheresaMaygovernmentdependsforsurvival,wasat thecentreofarowonFridayover his alleged undeclared family holidays in Sri Lanka that were paid for by Colombo.

TheHouseofCommonscodeof conductstatesMPsmustdeclare any visit to a destination outside theUKwhich“relatesinanyway totheirmembershipofthehouse ortotheirparliamentaryorpolitical activities”, and which costs more than £300.

MPs do not have to register family holidays if they are “whollyunconnectedwithmembership of the house or with the member’sparliamentaryorpolit- ical activities”.

Paisley’s holidays, reportedly worth£100,000inhospitalityfrom the Sri Lanka government, was the subject of the main story in The Daily Telegraph, but he promptly denied it and referred himself to the parliamentary standards commissioner.

Paisley said the report was “devoidoffactorlogic”and“defamatory”,whileaDUPspokesman said: “Ian Paisley MP will rightly refer himself to the (Parliamentary) Commissioner for Standards. We await the outcome of that investigation.”

The newspaper reported the Paisleyfamilyflewbusinessclass toSriLankaandstayedinluxurious hotels, and claimed the costs andexpenseswerepaidforbythe Sri Lankan government. There wasnowordontheissuefromthe Sri Lankan embassy in London.