Campbell: Give Robinson a week to prove innocence

Senior DUP member Gregory Campbell has said party leader Peter Robinson should be given a week to prove that he did not breach any rules over his wife's financial affairs.

Mr Robinson was attempting to clear his name today after insisting he did not know of his wife’s irregular financial dealings with her teenage lover.

Peter Robinson, the Democratic Unionist leader, ordered an official inquiry into his conduct on discovering his MP wife Iris had secured £50,000 (€55,600) from two wealthy developers to help her 19-year-old lover set up a restaurant business in south Belfast.

As well as the affair, he claimed she had also concealed the nature of the donations she obtained.

“I had no information,” he said. “Absolutely no information about that, nor of any of the other financial arrangements, which is hardly surprising if somebody is hiding an affair from you, it’s probably not a surprise they are hiding the other arrangements relating to that affair.”

The East Belfast MP faced calls to resign or consider his future amid heightening unease and deep disquiet within his own ranks following claims that he failed to alert the authorities that Mrs Robinson did not declare her monetary interest in her lover Kirk McCambley’s restaurant – even though she was a member of the council that gave him the go-ahead to open in 2008.

Already under pressure from rival unionists going into the general election, some senior DUP members fear the leader might not survive this crisis and the sex-and-money scandal involving his troubled wife. She is quitting politics because of severe depression and has not been seen since Christmas.

Mr McCambley, 21, refused to comment at his business on the banks of the River Lagan.

But Mr Robinson came out fighting last night, ordering civil servants to call in senior lawyers to probe his actions.

At the office of the DUP headquarters in his East Belfast constituency he said: “I have consistently indicated that I have done nothing wrong, that I acted properly.

“But me believing that and saying it, in my view, is not sufficient because I am being, if you like, tried by the press and therefore I think that we need to have an investigation.”

Asked what he would do if the lawyers did find he had breached ministerial codes, he said: “If there is (a breach) I will have to clearly and publicly indicate that is so and that clearly will mean there are consequences that I have to consider ... in regard to my position.”

The DUP leader also revealed that his wife was too unwell to even answer the allegations levelled at her.

“I am not even in the position where I can question my wife about these issues,” he said. “Neither her solicitor or I would be confident about the responses we are getting to any questions.”

The MP also hit out at any suggestion that his wife was overstating the seriousness of her illness.

Last night it emerged Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has also requested that officials seek legal opinion on the allegations.

The scandal has broken with the Executive already destabilised by the ongoing rift between the DUP and Sinn Féin over delays in devolving policing powers to the region.

A Sinn Féin source said: “Martin McGuinness is very concerned by the issues raised in last night’s (television) programme. This morning he requested a legal opinion to be prepared by the departmental solicitor’s office concerning any implications for the operations of the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.”