Ian Paisley Jr is not a happy bunny. He’s on the attack after Anna Soubry was revealed in yesterday’s Times to have lunched Patrick Wintour just before a story by him appeared in the Guardian suggesting plain packaging of fag packets would be introduced. A story that was denied, yet still “drove 2.8% off the stock market value of the shares of a manufacturing company in the UK.” Paisley told the Commons last night: “The share price has not yet recovered, despite Ministers’ denials that they are going to introduce such a policy on 8 May.” He went on:

“The Government have a duty and a responsibility to defend employment in Northern Ireland. They might not like what is being manufactured, but that industry keeps 1,100 people in jobs in Northern Ireland and puts £60 million directly into the wage economy there. More importantly, it supports tens of thousands of other smaller companies including retail shops and other minor businesses in the locality.”

Careless talk costs lives…