Dublin 'leaked letter over Premier's cancelled visit, says MP

The row over the Irish Prime Minister's cancelled visit to Scotland has intensified as the Labour MP at the centre of the controversy suggested Dublin leaked damaging information to the press.

Labour MP Frank Roy has indicated that the Irish counsel in Edinburgh leaked details of a letter which suggested Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid shared his fears over Bertie Ahern's unveiling of a memorial at Carfin, Lanarkshire.

The ceremony, which was due to take place shortly after the end of the Old Firm game, was postponed amid fears his presence could spark sectarian violence.

Mr Roy, Motherwell and Wishaw MP, has refused to comment on the issue insisting he is spending the day with his family, but he suggested in the Scotland on Sunday that Dan Mulhall, the Irish counsel in Edinburgh, must have leaked the letter.

He said: "There is only one person with a copy of my letter to the consul. He (Mulhall) is the only person I wrote to. It wasn't me. Who else could have done it?"

However a spokeswoman for Mr Ahern's office denied Mr Mulhall had leaked the letter. She said: "He did not leak the letter to the media and he would find any such suggestion highly offensive."

The letter, revealed in the Herald newspaper, is the latest twist in the controversy which has dominated Scottish politics over the past week.

The SNP are demanding answers from Mr Reid and Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell after Mr Roy apparently used their names in the letter in which he urged Mr Ahern to cancel his opening of the Carfin memorial to victims of the potato famine.

SNP leader, John Swinney, called on Dr Reid and Mrs Liddell to "come clean" over whether they tried to block the visit.

According to The Herald, Mr Roy cited their names in the letter which revealed fears the trip might inflame sectarian tension because it fell on the same day as the Rangers and Celtic match. Mr Swinney said the letter had left the Irish Government with "no choice but to cancel the Taoiseach's visit".