TUV MLA faces suspension for comments deemed unreasonable

Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) assembly member Timothy Gaston is facing a two-day suspension from the Northern Ireland Assembly after telling the chairwoman of a Stormont committee to "breathe".

He made the remark during a tense exchange with Alliance Party assembly member Paula Bradshaw, who chairs the Executive Office scrutiny committee.

She complained to Stormont's standards commissioner, who found Gaston's comment was an "unreasonable and excessive personal attack".

Gaston said he apologised at the time for the "ill-judged" remark, but rejected Bradshaw's accusation that it was "misogynistic" and disputed the watchdog's findings.

The commissioner's report was considered by the standards and privileges committee, which is made up of MLAs.

Its recommendation of a two-day suspension is to be considered by the assembly on Monday.

The dispute centres on a committee meeting on 23 October 2024 in which members were due to question First Minister Michelle O'Neill.

The Sinn Féin deputy leader's attendance came at a time when her party was under pressure over its handling of several controversies.

They included job references provided for Michael McMonagle, a former Sinn Féin press officer who was later convicted of child sex offences.

In a tense exchange, Gaston criticised Bradshaw over her holding a meeting with O'Neill prior to the public committee session.

He asked Bradshaw how she could "limit what members are going to ask", to which the Alliance MLA responded: "I haven't said I was going to limit.

"Did I say I was going to limit? Did I say I was going to limit? No, I didn't."

Gaston replied: "Take a step back. You're okay, you're okay. Breathe."

In December 2024, the TUV assembly member lodged a complaint against Bradshaw with the standards commissioner, who the following February determined it was "inadmissible".

Meanwhile Bradshaw submitted a complaint against Gaston.

In her investigation report, the then standards commissioner Melissa McCullough found Gaston had breached the code of conduct for MLAs.

She said his "breathe" comment was "both unreasonable and excessive" and "may reasonably be perceived as condescending and patronising in tone".

"Taken together, the tone and context of Mr Gaston's remark undermined and disrespected the chair's authority in a manner that goes beyond acceptable parliamentary discourse and, in my view, constitutes an unnecessary personal attack," she added.

McCullough said it was "not merely a case of the accepted 'rough and tumble' of political life", but related to all MLAs treating each other "with courtesy and respect".

The commissioner also said the MLA had engaged in "persistent, repetitive undermining of the chair and committee protocols".

She said his questions to the first minister "clearly did not pertain to the work of the Executive Office" and Bradshaw was therefore "fully justified - and indeed obliged - to intervene".

The standards and privileges committee upheld the commissioner's findings and has proposed that Gaston is excluded from assembly proceedings for two sitting days.

TUV was approached for a response, but a party spokesman said they were "precluded from making any comment on it in advance of Monday's debate".

In his responses to the commissioner's investigation, Gaston rejected as "groundless" any suggestion his comment to Bradshaw was "misogynistic".

However, he accepted it was "ill-judged" and said he apologised at the time.

He described the report's findings as "neither fair nor proportionate" and warned they would "weaken scrutiny, not strengthen standards".

Gaston also described as "inconsistent" how his earlier complaint against Bradshaw was considered "inadmissible" by the commissioner on the basis that it related to her actions as a committee chairperson.

He pointed to a previous case in which the commissioner investigated an Ulster Unionist MLA over his conduct while chairing a committee meeting.

The standards committee said the two cases could be "differentiated" as Steve Aiken was arguably "not acting exclusively in his capacity as committee chairperson during the conduct in question".

However, the committee agreed to consider whether the code should be amended in future to remove any "potential ambiguity".