The chair of a Westminster committee met loyalist paramilitaries as part of a personal fact-finding mission, a statement issued on his behalf has said.
Tory MP Simon Hoare, chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, held separate meetings with UDA and UVF figures earlier this month to encourage them to buy into the Windsor Framework.
Mr Hoare said he had attended the meetings in a personal capacity.
While both the UDA and UVF are on ceasefire, they are illegal paramilitary organisations that have been linked with ongoing criminality.
Police said earlier this year they were monitoring tensions in loyalist areas following the unveiling of the Windsor Framework, designed to ease trading barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
In late 2021, two buses in loyalist areas were hijacked and burnt amid rising tensions over opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee released a statement about the meetings, which said they were not an attempt to represent the committee.
The statement said: "The chair's visit to Northern Ireland was to fact-find to inform house and committee discussion on paramilitary activity and organised crime in Northern Ireland.
"The visit was not an attempt to represent the committee or communicate its views."
Mr Hoare told the Belfast Telegraph: "I was there to listen directly to a group of people in Northern Ireland who are so angry and frustrated.
"It was a listening exercise to help inform my understanding of a group of people who are hard to reach."
The MP for North Dorset said he would "talk to anybody in and around Northern Ireland who is prepared to talk to me".
"You can talk to all sorts of people about all sorts of things – it doesn't mean you agree with them," he said.
SDLP MP Claire Hanna said there was "absolutely no excuse for paramilitaries to exist".
"For too long people across our communities have been oppressed and undermined by toxic criminal gangs and self serving individuals who exploit well meaning external actors," she said.
"These groups shouldn’t exist and they certainly shouldn’t be consulted on our future – elevating and pandering to narcissists and criminals undermines everyone who engages in politics and social change peacefully and democratically."
