NORTH ANTRIM DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr is to refer himself to the standards office for MPs in Westminster following a newspaper article which he claims is defamatory.

The Daily Telegraph published a story based on documents which it said showed that the MP did not declare gifts received from the government of Sri Lanka.

Paisley said that the article is “devoid of fact or logic” and that he has referred it to his lawyer.

The article also says that Paisley recently met Sri Lankan officials to discuss possible post-Brexit trade deals with the country.

The newspaper claims that the gifts were never disclosed in the House of Commons register of interests.

However, in a Twitter post last night, Paisley said that he will refer himself the Parliamentary Commissioner of Standards Office.

The Commissioner oversees the operation of the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, amongst other registers.

The financial register exists for MPs to declare income, gifts or affiliations that could be viewed as a potential conflict of interest.

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In a response to the article, the DUP released a brief statement on Twitter which said:

Ian Paisley MP will rightly refer himself to the Commissioner for Standards.

We await the outcome of that investigation.

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