Ian Paisley is facing renewed scrutiny over luxury holidays after it was reported that a Maldivian government minister funded a trip for the MP and his family.

The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) said on Wednesday it would investigate the “serious issues” raised by the allegation.

The BBC programme Spotlight reported that the outspoken North Antrim MP had taken previously unknown luxury holidays in Indian Ocean resorts, with a Maldivian minister, Mohamed Shainee, paying for one of them.

Northern Ireland’s other political parties including Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists urged the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, to examine the allegation.

Last year Paisley was censured by the House of Commons and briefly suspended by his party for failing to declare two family holidays to Sri Lanka in 2013 paid for by the Sri Lankan government. A parliamentary standards committee deemed it “serious misconduct”.

A recall petition in September narrowly fell short of the numbers needed to unseat Paisley. The latest allegation will test the loyalty and forbearance of his constituency and his Westminster colleagues.

Paisley has made no public response to the report, which raised the number of visits he is known to have made to Indian Ocean resorts over a three-year period to five.

The BBC reported last December that Paisley took a complimentary holiday with his family to the Maldives in 2016 after advocating on behalf of its government, which has been accused of human rights abuses. He did not register the holiday in the parliamentary register of interests.

Paisley said it was paid for not by the Maldivian government but partly out of his own pocket and partly by a friend, who he declined to identify.

This week’s follow-up report cited three sources, including a resort owner, who identified the benefactor as Shainee, who was then a minister.

The SDLP leader, Colum Eastwood, urged the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, to sanction the MP. “Ian Paisley’s Maldives jetsetting has already disgraced his office and earned him a record suspension from Westminster. These new revelations further degrade his reputation and they degrade trust in politics,” Eastwood said.