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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.
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