Watchdog to investigate Paisley over Sri Lankan holidays

ONE of the Northern Irish MPS propping up the Government is being investigated by the parliamentary standards watchdog after a Telegraph investigation revealed how he accepted holidays worth £100,000 from Sri Lanka.

Kathryn Hudson, the Commons standards commissioner, has opened an inquiry into whether Ian Paisley Jr failed to properly register outside interests or declare them in dealings with MPS and ministers. Mr Paisley referred himself to Mrs Hudson last week after this newspaper disclosed that he accepted two all-expenses-paid trips to Sri Lanka before helping the state’s efforts to secure a post-brexit trade deal.

Yesterday, Mrs Hudson’s office said she had begun a formal investigation into whether Mr Paisley had breached paragraph 13 of the Commons Code of Conduct. The paragraph states: “Members shall fulfil conscientiously the requirements of the House in respect of the registration of interests in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. They shall always be open and frank in drawing attention to any relevant interest in any proceeding of the House or its Committees, and in any communications with Ministers, Members, public officials or public office holders.”

It follows concern raised by MPS that the DUP parliamentarian might be helping to broker a “back-door trade agreement” with Sri Lanka. Transparency International, the campaign group, had said Mrs Hudson should investigate the matter as a “top priority”, after concerns that Mr Paisley has failed to declare the trips in the Commons register of interests.

Documents seen by The Telegraph show Mr Paisley took his wife and children to Sri Lanka for holidays in 2013.

Mr Paisley initially declined to answer questions about The Telegraph’s findings. He later tweeted a statement from his lawyer saying: “My client totally denies the defamatory inferences arising from the article in today’s Daily Telegraph including those relating to his registration obligations as an MP.”