Timothy Gaston returns to Stormont and defends conduct in ‘breathegate’ row

TUV North Antrim MLA Timothy Gaston

TUV MLA Timothy Gaston has returned to the Northern Ireland Assembly after serving a two-day suspension, using his first day back in the Stormont chamber to defend his conduct and challenge the handling of the so-called ‘breathegate’ controversy.

Speaking during Assembly business, Mr Gaston said the sanction imposed on him had now been “served” and set out a detailed response to the circumstances surrounding his removal from the Chamber.

Gaston addresses suspension on return to Assembly

Mr Gaston told Members that his exclusion followed objections raised during questioning at the Executive Office Committee, where he said he had raised issues on behalf of victims of sexual abuse.

He said:

“Now that the nationalist and republican alliance sanction to exclude me from the Chamber has been served, I take the opportunity to put on record a number of things about breathegate.

“First, I want the House to know that, when the First Minister of no alternative appeared before the Executive Office Committee last Wednesday, I again covered a number of the same questions that the Chairperson and her mates in Sinn Féin and the SDLP took great exception to and silenced me on these Benches for.”

Mr Gaston insisted that his line of questioning had been legitimate and within the scope of the Committee’s remit.

“To be crystal clear, it was never out of scope to ask questions at the Executive Office Committee on behalf of victims about the sexual abuse that they suffered at the hands of IRA men,” he said.

He added that scrutiny should not be curtailed because it causes discomfort within the Chamber.

“For as long as Sinn Féin jointly heads that Department, it will never be out of scope of the Committee whose flagship is ending violence against women and girls. Scrutiny does not suddenly become misconduct simply because it makes a few in the Chamber feel uncomfortable.”

Public reaction cited following Assembly vote

Turning to the wider response to last week’s vote, Mr Gaston referenced correspondence he sent to the Committee on Standards and Privileges in June of the previous year.

He said:

“On 12 June last year, I wrote to the Committee on Standards and Privileges stating:

‘Should the committee agree with the report and publish the same I look forward to being vindicated by the only body which really matters - public opinion.’”

Mr Gaston said he believed subsequent public reaction supported his position.

“Looking at the response online and in print, any objective observer must recognise that those words have proved to be prophetic. The supporting emails, the many messages, the phone calls and well over 1,000 new followers on Facebook in the past seven days show me whom the public support on the issue.”

Call for publication of withheld note

Mr Gaston also raised concerns about what he described as a lack of transparency surrounding a private meeting involving the First Minister and the Executive Office Committee Chair.

He said the continued refusal to release a contemporaneous note from that meeting remained unexplained.

“More concerning is that the truth of what lies behind the continuing refusal to release the contemporaneous note has not yet fully emerged.”

He called for the note to be published, describing it as a step towards accountability.

“A step towards that truth would be the publication of the note taken during the private meeting between the First Minister and the Committee Chair — a meeting of which the Executive Office Committee has no independent record; a meeting of which the only minute was produced by the First Minister’s office; and a meeting the note of which remains withheld from the public to this day.”

Mr Gaston welcomed calls from the Ulster Unionist Party for the note’s release and challenged other parties to follow suit.

“I welcome the fact that the Ulster Unionist Party has now called for the note to be published. I ask this simple question: will the Alliance Party and the SDLP follow? If Members have confidence in the standards process and in the vote that was taken last week transparency should not frighten them.”

Response

The dispute has prompted significant public engagement, with Mr Gaston citing emails, phone calls and a surge in social media following as evidence of widespread interest in the case.

The controversy also raises broader questions about transparency, scrutiny, and public confidence in Assembly standards processes.