Two free luxury holidays worth over 100,000 Sterling Pounds (Rs. 20,000,000) extended by the Sri Lankan government in 2013 under the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime to a British Parliamentarian and his family, has placed the foreign legislator in a major soup, foreign media reports said yesterday.
Ian Paisley Jr. who represents North Antrim from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is facing calls to quit with the prospect of him facing a by-election after the parliamentary watchdog recommended that he be suspended from the Commons for 30 days.
The fate of the MP will be known when the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom meets on Tuesday, July 24.
“Senior members of the DUP are holding a private meeting to discuss the future of North Antrim MP Ian Paisley,” the BBC reported yesterday.
DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told the BBC that Paisley’s behaviour was unacceptable and his party was not going to take “a lynch mob approach”.
The MP has been found guilty by the UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for accepting an all expenses paid trip and failing to register the two family holidays funded by the Sri Lankan government. The Committee described Paisley’s actions amounted to “paid advocacy” as it was prior to his lobbying against an United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution brought against Sri Lanka.
The investigation was sparked last year when the UK-based The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that Paisley accepted two holidays, was referred to the standards commissioner for investigation. The Commissioner said the Sri Lankan holidays in 2013 included business-class air travel, accommodation at first-class hotels, helicopter trips and visits to tourist attractions for the North Antrim MP and his wider family. There were two trips at the heart of the investigation – on the first, in March-April 2013 he was accompanied by his wife and four of their children, while weeks later he travelled with his wife and two of their children.
The Sri Lankan government paid for business class tickets for Paisley and his family on Sri Lankan Airlines. During their stays they were taken to attractions including, a national park, a Buddhist temple, an elephant sanctuary with the costs of the excursions being covered by the government.
During the first trip, the MP and his family were given a suite at the Hilton Hotel in Colombo before being accommodated in the five-star Heritance hotel near Galle and the Amethyst Resort on the East coast. During the July trip they stayed at another five-star Heritance hotel, with a pair of rooms costing £208 and £254 for two nights.
Over the two trips there were seven helicopter flights. This included a 50-mile helicopter trip to the city of Kandy where they were put up in the five-star Earl’s Regency Hotel and given free access to an elephant orphanage an hour from their hotel. The North Antrim MP employed a management consultant to cost the trips, which his accountant subsequently assessed. In correspondence with the Commissioner he said, “The calculations I have set out show the combined visits would, using a high-end tour company, taking account of a car and driver hire, and at least seven helicopter lifts and an excursion come to a combined total of £51,441.” Paisley was on the verge of tears on Thursday at the House of Commons as he issued a grovelling apology for not declaring up to £100,000 of free holidays to Sri Lanka.