As one of his constituents, Ian Paisley Jr’s suspension from parliament is no surprise. Here’s why

In a week of votes squeaking through by the skin of their teeth, the dubious actions of this Ballymena politician could impact on how Brexit is shaped, given the prime minister’s small majority in parliament

A lot has happened since 1949, unsurprisingly. Yet something that has never happened – until now – is an MP facing a 30 sitting day suspension from parliament.

When news came through on Wednesday afternoon that the parliamentary commissioner for standards was recommending this historic suspension, the largest ever handed down, for Ian Paisley Jr – MP of my constituency of North Antrim since 2010 – this sadly wasn’t the first time his name had become entangled with controversy.

The suspension is due to two extravagant family holidays Paisley took to Sri Lanka, all expenses paid by its government, including “business class air travel, accommodation at first class hotels, helicopter trips and visits to tourist attractions for Mr Paisley and his wider family”. The value of all of this hospitality is disputed. The Daily Telegraph claims it is £100,000 and Paisley says it is £50,000. The commissioner concluded it “may have been significantly more than that”. The threshold for registering hospitality however, was £660.

The commissioner has dismissed Paisley’s claim of ignorance of the rules, not only because he has been an MP for so long, but also because he did register a solo, third trip to Sri Lanka – the commissioner deemed that “the reason why the third visit was registered and the two earlier ones were not, was that Mr Paisley was conscious of the potential embarrassment that would be caused to him were it to become publicly known that he had accepted very expensive hospitality, for himself and his family, from a foreign government accused of serious human rights violations”.

Paisley is still contemplating suing The Daily Telegraph for “sensationalising” the story.

His suspension must first be passed as a motion in Parliament and could have a rippling effect. He is likely to face a recall petition, which if successful will result in a byelection. In a week of votes squeaking through by the skin of their teeth, the dubious actions of this Ballymena politician could impact on how Brexit is shaped, given the prime minister’s small majority in parliament. I’ll campaign hard to bring that election about, but I’d be very doubtful parliament will see a different man return, such is North Antrim’s devotion to the DUP.

This devotion has so far withstood a string of different incidents.

In 2008, he had to step down as a Stormont minister after an avalanche of revelations about dealings with a property developer pal of his – it was so extensive, there isn’t the space to cover it here, but it involved an acquired holiday home, his constituency office and his ridiculous lobbying efforts (including during 2006 peace talks, putting a government grant to his property pal on his “wish list” presented to Tony Blair).

His MP career is also worthy of note.

In his first term, between 2010 and 2015, he only attended and/or voted in about 34 per cent of votes, one of the very worst rates in parliament. Despite this, in 2012-2013, he claimed more expenses than any other MP – £232,000. He claimed that was the consequence of being so busy helping constituents, yet his first term saw two major factories close in Ballymena alone, resulting in about 2,000 job losses, along with a spike in empty shopfronts in the town.

While it would be hyperbole to put that all at Paisley’s door, his lack of productivity for our town is significant. All the while, he was doing things like privately earning £7,500 flying to Uganda on behalf of a French financial firm, which is why he missed the vote on Syrian military intervention in 2013. North Antrim only received eight Foreign Direct Investment visits between 2010-2015, and received some of the lowest investment by Invest Northern Ireland, the region’s economic development agency (making up only 1.9 per cent of the total invested in 2014).

All of which could lead a cynical mind to believe his advocacy is too often for private interests, not his constituency’s. This view may have been reinforced by the recent disclosure of private emails from Paisley to a foreign government official where my MP claimed to have “two significant arrangements” with big oil suppliers in Oman or Nigeria who could “very quickly” help get a deal for a “lucrative project”. He has since retorted that he had “never brokered any oil deal” for anyone, he’d “never met him or any of his colleagues in Africa” and that it was a “total fabrication and nonsense” to suggest that “some sort of illicit trade deal” had been carried out.

In the end, the commissioner’s finding that he has brought parliament into disrepute is, in my opinion, what he has been doing to my hometown for a decade – not just due to my grievances set out above, but his well-documented homophobia.

As I walked through my town sketching out this piece, I witnessed almost as many empty shopfronts as days he’ll be suspended for – any incoming byelection isn’t just a vote in North Antrim, but one about who we are. Re-electing him and passing by an opportunity to shape UK Brexit policy is the most likely outcome, and a sad reflection of Brexit-backing constituencies across the UK, and our empty stores, cluttering up my home’s streets.