Sinn Féin seats row 'could wreck police board'

Peter Hain could wreck Northern Ireland’s Policing Board by guaranteeing Sinn Féin seats will remain in nationalist hands if the party turns them down, he was warned tonight.

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey told his party‘s Westminster Association in London the Northern Ireland Secretary’s refusal to reallocate any seats Sinn Féin may reject to other parties was a political crisis in the making.