Parliament unanimously bans Ian Paisley for 30 sitting days over holiday scandal

DUP MP Ian Paisley and his family received two free holidays from the Sri Lankan government

Parliament has confirmed that DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr will be suspended for 30 sitting days - something which means that the Government has lost one vote ahead of what are likely to be knife-edge Brexit votes in the autumn.

The length of the suspension - handed down after Mr Paisley and his family took lavish holidays from a foreign government for which he then lobbied - represents the biggest punishment given to any MP since at least 1949.

The scale of the suspension means that Mr Paisley’s voters will now be automatically - under changes made in the wake of the Westminster expenses scandal - be given the chance to force a by-election.

Under the Recall of MPs Act 2015, Commons Speaker John Bercow now must write to the Chief Electoral Office for Northern Ireland to ask her to start a petition in Mr Paisley’s North Antrim constituency.

If over a six-week period that petition is signed by 10% of voters - about 7,600 people - then Mr Paisley will lose his seat and a by-election will be held. He has made clear that in such a situation he would stand again.

Mr Bercow told the Commons that there had never been a recall petition before but that there were now 10 days for the petition to be put in place.

The Speaker said that it was a “regrettable state of affairs”.

The 30-day sanction was last week recommended by the Commons’ Standards Committee and today ratified by the Commons.

Mr Paisley was not in the Commons when the sanction was unanimously approved by MPs this afternoon.

Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom said it was “always regrettable” when the house has to debate a motion relating to misconduct.

Sir Kevin Barron, chair of the Standards Committee, said that it viewed Mr Paisley’s misconduct as a very serious matter which justified such an unusually high sanction.