I will not quit as MP, says DUP's Ian Paisley

Suspended MP Ian Paisley suggests he will not resign

Ian Paisley, the MP for North Antrim, has said he would have resigned if he had thought he had done anything to warrant it.

In July, MPs voted to suspend him from the House of Commons after failing to declare holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government.

"If I believed that I'd done anything that deserved me to resign from my job I would not be there today," he said.

He could lose his role as an MP if 10% of his constituents sign a petition.

Mr Paisley has also been suspended by the DUP while it investigates his conduct.

Voters in his constituency have been signing a recall ballot, which opened this month, calling for him to face a by-election.

'Let that stand'

Speaking to the BBC's Talkback, he said he had "been very quiet" about his suspension since he made a statement about it at Westminster last month.

"I've let that stand - I have accepted the report from the House of Commons and apologised for it."

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The recall petition that Ian Paisley is facing is the first in UK parliamentary history

Mr Paisley went on three luxury holidays to Sri Lanka in 2013 at the expense of the country's government.

The next year he wrote to the prime minister to lobby against supporting a UN resolution on Sri Lanka about alleged human rights abuses in the country.

A Westminster standards committee found that Mr Paisley had breached the rule against paid advocacy by failing to declare his trips.

It also concluded that the cost of the holidays was "much higher" than the £50,000 that Mr Paisley estimated.

He was suspended from the Commons for 30 sitting days - it is one of the longest bans ever to be handed down at Westminster.

Mr Paisley has insisted he will fight a by-election to save his Commons seat if voters force him to stand down.

On Monday, he apologised to some DUP supporters at a meeting in North Antrim.

The DUP councillor John Finlay, who organised the meeting, said those who attended it were "very courteous and supportive to him".

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