Ian Og will find himself in some pretty unsavoury company if the House of Commons endorses the penalty imposed by its Standards and Privileges Committee. In the past 70 years only two MPs, Teresa Gorman and Keith Vaz have been suspended for a month, in Gorman’s case for non-disclosure of property interests and in Vaz’s case for breaches of the Code of Conduct and contempt of the House.
There’s no doubt Paisley’s offence ranks alongside those others. The apology so far offered is disingenuous in the extreme.
To apologise for ‘unintentional failure to register the hospitality he received’ misses the whole point.
Yes, you could wonder how he didn’t register what must have been two memorable extravagant, luxurious holidays in 2013 costing up to £100,000 when the threshold for registering is £660 but what is utterly disgraceful, and this is the crucial point, Paisley wrote to David Cameron in March 2014 lobbying on behalf of Sri Lanka, a state with one of the worst human rights records on earth, to argue against a UN investigation into human rights abuses by, yes, Sri Lanka.
In that letter it seems Ian Og also forgot to mention he had received personal benefit, two lavish paid holidays by the government, one with five people the other with three. As the Commissioner concluded, it was lobbying in return for reward or consideration, one of the worst offences a public representative can commit.
It certainly throws into sharp focus Ian Og’s original response to the story in the Daily Telegraph that it was ‘devoid of fact or logic’ unless he was confusing it with his own response to the accusation.
On previous occasions when people have levelled accusations at him Paisley has been able to shrug them off.
For example in 2013, obviously an annus mirabilis for him, he claimed the highest expenses for any MP, £232,000 for travel, accommodation and staff but was able to justify that by pointing out that none of it went to him personally as an MP.
From 2010-2015 he received £1,112,667 in expenses.
In 2007 businessman Seymour Sweeney admitted Ian Og had lobbied on his behalf for a private visitors' centre at the Giant’s Causeway, the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in the north.
However Sweeney and Paisley denied there was any financial relationship between them, only social connections.
In 2008 Paisley resigned from his position as a junior minister at Stormont after criticism that he was a paid constituency researcher for his father in North Antrim as well as being a North Antrim MLA and junior minister. Since then his star in the DUP has waned as his father was ousted from the party leadership.
Now Ian Og faces the biggest crisis of his chequered career.
If he is suspended for thirty days it looks as if there will be a cavalry charge of political parties to gather up the necessary 7,500 odd signatures for a petition to recall him as an MP and force a by-election.
Unsurprisingly already Jim Allister says he should consider his position especially since Theresa May depends on ten DUP votes and is winning these days only by three or four. Others say his continuing as an MP is untenable but Paisley says he will contest a by-election.
Will the DUP support him? That will be an interesting campaign. What a huge embarrassment and humiliation.
What will the voters say on the doorstep? What will the slogan be? ‘Vote for Paisley. Vote for honesty, integrity and forgetfulness’? What will the turnout be? Could disgust and abstention lose Ian Og the seat?
Read more:
- What did the lavish trips cost?
- Undated selfie 'taken at 11th night bonfire' offered as proof Paisley was not in Sri Lanka
- Ian Paisley has made headlines before for all the wrong reasons
- Analysis: Ian Paisley's actions spell all kinds of trouble (premium)
- Video: Emotional Ian Paisley apologises for 'total failure' over rules breach
