Brown Holds Devolution Talks After NI Scandal.
Gordon Brown is to hold urgent talks over the future of Northern Ireland devolution amid fears the process could stall in the wake of the Iris Robison affair.
The Prime Minister is meeting his Irish counterpart Brian Cowen at Downing Street to discuss plans to hand policing powers from Westminster to Stormont.
It will be their first talks since Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson temporarily stepped aside to try to clear his name after he was implicated in a financial scandal.
Mr Robinson’s wife Iris admitted securing £50,000 of loans to help her 19-year-old lover set up a business.
The First Minister has been accused of knowing about the money and failing to declare it – which he denies.
Policing is one of the most sensitive areas of devolution – and there are fears the scandal will push tensions between Mr Robinson’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and its main NI Assembly coalition partner Sinn Fein to the brink.
Sinn Fein has accused the DUP of dragging its feet on the 
issue. Failure to complete the process could bring down the Assembly.
The British and Irish governments hope the crisis could strengthen resolve among lawmakers in Belfast. Both countries played a key role in brokering the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.
Mrs Robinson, who was kicked out of the DUP, has stepped down as MP for Strangford. According to her husband, she is receiving “acute psychiatric treatment”.
