Son of party’s founder and now ‘kingmaker’ for May ran up highest Westminster expenses bill
The son of the Democratic Unionist Party’s firebrand founder, Dr Ian Paisley, Ian Paisley Jr has held his father’s old seat of North Antrim since 2010.
A DUP member of the Northern Ireland Assembly before being elected to Parliament, in May 2007 Mr Paisley joined the power-sharing government led by his father as a junior minister.
However, the next year he resigned after months of adverse publicity over his links to a property tycoon.
He insisted that he had done nothing wrong but said the “criticism has been a distraction and has got in the way of the activities of this government”. Later in 2008, Mr Paisley travelled to New York in an attempt to persuade Donald Trump to build a golf resort in Northern Ireland. He invited Mr Trump to visit Northern Ireland when the Open golf championship is held at Portrush in 2019.
He was a fierce opponent of same-sex marriage and described himself as being “pretty repulsed” by homosexuality, although he later said he had “grown up” since his comments.
Mr Paisley was among a number of MPS to hold talks with the BBC over claims its Brexit coverage was “onesided, doom-laden reporting”.
This year he became one of 10 Northern Irish MPS hailed kingmakers after the general election.
The group secured a £1billion deal for Northern Ireland in exchange for a confidence and supply arrangement to prop up Theresa May’s Government. As the party advanced towards the deal, Mr Paisley allegedly quipped on camera: “The future’s orange.” It was in response to DUP leader Arlene Foster’s comment: “The future’s bright.” Mr Paisley maintains he was misheard, and insists he said the future is “alright”.
Since being elected to Westminster, he has come under scrutiny for his high expenses.
The married father-of-four topped the list in 2013 – running up a staffing, travel and accommodation bill of £232,000. “They are legitimate expenses signed off by IPSA and paid directly by the Parliament,” Mr Paisley said.
He was among a number of MPS who had their Commons credit cards temporarily suspended in 2015 over a £6,000 debt which a spokesman said “was a result of unreconciled invoices”.