The younger Ian, along with his twin brother (Kyle) and his three elder sisters (Sharon, Rhonda and Cherith), was brought up in a large detached house on Cyprus Avenue in east Belfast.
[3] In August 2007, he was the subject of the third episode of the BBC Radio 4 series The House I Grew Up In in which he talked about a happy childhood and secure family life, despite the Troubles.
He is one of three DUP members who have taken their seats on the Northern Ireland Policing Board, and is also the party's justice spokesman and press officer.
Paisley successfully ran to succeed his father as the MP for North Antrim in the 2010 UK general election, winning 46.4% of the vote share.
"[4] In 2022, Paisley introduced a private members' bill that proposed to alter how future referendums on constitutional change, and thus Northern Ireland's ability to leave the United Kingdom, would be ratified.
[5] Paisley's bill would have changed the law so that a simple majority vote would no longer be enough for reunification with Ireland, and instead a higher bar of a supermajority would be required for an affirmative result to be declared.
[6] However, Paisley's actions were ridiculed by fellow Northern Irish MP's Stephen Farry and Claire Hanna, who both described it as a political stunt and highlighted that it would never be debated by or voted upon by the UK Parliament.
[14] In 2019, Paisley helped JCB heir Jo Bamford purchase Wrightbus, the financially troubled manufacturer of London's famous double-decker buses.
[17] In March 1998, Paisley and Sammy Wilson spoke at a rally in Portadown organised by the paramilitary Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) in opposition to political negotiations preceding the Good Friday Agreement.
Their appearance was widely criticised; the rally came hours after the funeral for two men murdered by the LVF, Philip Allen and Damien Trainor – one a Protestant, one a Catholic – in a bar in Poyntzpass, County Armagh, in an indiscriminate sectarian attack.
"[20][21] Paisley caused further controversy in May 2007 when, in an interview with journalist Jason O'Toole in Hot Press magazine, he said that "I am pretty repulsed by gay and lesbianism.
I have strong Christian beliefs and moral viewpoints, but you have to realise that while sin is black and white, life is a lot of grey.
Paisley strongly denied that he had any financial relationship with Sweeney, although he admitted that he had gone deep sea fishing with the developer socially.
[27] There were a series of public blunders and further controversy in February 2008, following scrutiny on the employment of family members by politicians after the Derek Conway scandal, when it emerged that Paisley was on his father's payroll as a researcher in the constituency of North Antrim in addition to his roles as an MLA and a junior minister.
[29] Further controversy occurred in August 2008 when Paisley, speaking after a number of attacks on the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said that dissident republicans should be "shot on sight".
The Committee concluded that Paisley's actions amounted to serious misconduct and suggested that his failure to register his visits to Sri Lanka had occurred because he was conscious of the potential embarrassment that would be caused to him if it were to become publicly known that he had accepted very expensive hospitality, for himself and his family, from an overseas government accused of serious human rights violations.
[34] On 24 July 2018, MPs voted to suspend Paisley from the House of Commons for a period of 30 sitting days, beginning on 4 September 2018.
[35] On 20 September 2018, the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland announced the recall petition had fallen 444 votes short of the number needed to spark a by-election.