Member News
By Tony Grew - 13th January 2010
DUP MP Iris Robinson today left the House of Commons amid scandal and allegations of corruption.
Her departure was announced last week after a BBC investigation revealed that she had procured loans for her teenage lover.
This afternoon the Treasury issued a one sentence press release.
"The chancellor of the exchequer has this day appointed Iris Robinson to be Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern."
As MPs are barred from resigning, those wishing to leave are instead appointed to a paid office of the Crown, which disqualifies them from sitting in the Commons.
The Chiltern Hundreds and the sinecure of Steward of the Manor of Northstead were retained as nominal offices of profit solely for this purpose.
On Saturday Robinson was expelled from the DUP. She is also to stand down from the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The wife of the party's leader, Northern Ireland first minister Peter Robinson, she is at the centre of allegations of financial impropriety after it was revealed she had an affair with a man 40 years her junior.
Mrs Robinson had announced just after Christmas her decision to withdraw from public life due to mental illness.
Last Thursday the BBC broadcast a documentary revealing that her lover, Kirk McCambley, now aged 21, had received £50,000 from Mrs Robinson to start a cafe business.
The affair began in the summer of 2008, when he was 19 and she was 59.
Mrs Robinson procured two loans of £50,000 from local developers and then passed the money to McCambley.
He claimed she later asked him for £5,000 "for herself" and demanded the entire loan back when the affair ended acrimoniously.
She did not declare the £50,000 in the register of members' interest at Westminster or in the Northern Ireland Asssembly, where she also represents Strangford.
The BBC also reported that Castlereagh Borough Council, where Mrs Robinson is a long-standing councillor, granted the tender to run the cafe, part of a new visitor's centre, to McCambley.
Peter Robinson has been forced to step down temporarily as first minister as an investigation is carried out into his conduct.
He is reported to have known about the loans but did not report his wife for not declaring her interests.
He still leads the DUP but on Monday announced he was handing over to MLA Arlene Foster temporarily during this "difficult time".
"Iris is receiving acute psychiatric treatment through the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust," he said.
"As a father and a husband, I need to devote time to deal with family matters.
"To take account of this I have, following a meeting with party colleagues and one with the deputy first minister, asked the minister for enterprise Arlene Foster MLA to carry out the functions of the office of first minister for a short period.
"I appreciate the unanimous support from my Assembly and parliamentary colleagues this morning."
Mr Robinson said he has acted "ethically" and said the allegations against him are "unfounded and mischievous."
"As you know I have requested that an opinion be obtained from senior counsel in relation to the ministerial code and related aspects," he said.
"In addition, the deputy first minister has received advices from the departmental solicitors' office which do not present any complications or difficulties whatsoever.
"I have asked for a parliamentary and Assembly inquiry to be undertaken into these matters.
"Throughout this period I will continue to work on the outstanding issues relating to policing and justice and some other matters."
A mother of three, Iris Robinson married in 1970 and was first elected to Westminster in 2001.
In June 2008, just days after her husband took over as first minister from Ian Paisley, she went on BBC Radio Ulster and declared that gay people could become heterosexual through therapy and claimed homosexuality is an "abomination".
In the ensuring controversy she refused to back down and went on to link gay people to child abusers.
Last year Peter and Iris Robinson faced criticism after it was revealed they are paid more than £500,000 a year in salaries and expenses and employed four of their relatives at a cost of £150,000.
In 2008 she was named Bigot of the Year by gay equality group Stonewall.
Article Comments
So with Peter Robinson appointed to be Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead on 17 December 1985, when he and the 14 other Ulster Unionists resigned over the Anglo-Irish Agreement, he and his wife have now held both offices of profit between them. Another first for the Robinsons.
Stephen Murray
14th Jan 2010 at 11:17 am
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