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Parliamentary standards watchdog opens inquiry into DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr
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 launched 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.
In 2015 figures showed that Mrs Hudson opened formal investigations into just one in ten complaints about MPs. In the same year she declined to take up one referral by an MP because the newspaper report that prompted the complaint failed to provide the necessary "evidence" for an inquiry.
But on Thursday, following an initial examination of the evidence, her office announced that she had opened 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."
The announcement followed 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 that Mrs Hudson should investigate the matter as a "top priority", following concerns that Mr Paisley has failed to declare the Sri Lankan trips in the Commons register of interests.
Documents seen by the Telegraph show that Mr Paisley took his wife and children to the country for luxury holidays in 2013.
Last week Mr Paisley posted a picture of himself alongside the Sri Lankan high commissioner, with the caption: “With Sri Lanka high commissioner to discuss NI-Sri Lanka trade deal after Brexit.”
Two days after the meeting in Parliament, Mr Paisley posted a picture of himself alongside Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, with whom he discussed "our trade agreements post Brexit".
Mr Paisley initially declined to answer a series of 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. He has now referred this matter, and a full explanation, to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards."