British MP denies £100K SL holiday claim

British MP Ian Paisley has rejected allegations levelled against him and said he did not declare £100,000 in hospitality from the Sri Lankan government, the BBC reported on Friday.

A newspaper report earlier said the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP and his family took two all-expenses-paid holidays to Sri Lanka in 2013.

The Daily Telegraph said he recently met Sri Lankan officials to discuss the possibility of post-Brexit trade deals with Sri Lanka.

But the MP said the report was "devoid of fact or logic" and "defamatory".

In response to the Sri Lankan holiday claims, a DUP spokesman said: "Ian Paisley MP will rightly refer himself to the [Parliamentary] Commissioner for Standards. "We await the outcome of that investigation."

The newspaper reported that the Paisely family flew business-class to Sri Lanka and stayed in luxurious hotels.

It estimated the total worth of the trips at about £100,000 and claimed the cost and expenses were paid for by the Sri Lankan government.

Mr. Paisley this week tweeted a picture of himself meeting the Sri Lankan High Commissioner Amari Wijewardene "to discuss NI-Sri Lanka trade deal after Brexit".

Two days later he tweeted a picture of himself with International Trade Secretary Liam Fox "discussing our trade agreements post-Brexit".

The 50-year-old MP is the son of the late Ian Paisley, founder and former leader of the DUP, now the largest political party in Northern Ireland.