Hain rejects claims of British cover-up

Reaction:Northern Secretary Peter Hain has rejected claims by both Sinn Féin and the DUP that the British government was involved in a cover-up over the disclosure that senior republican Denis Donaldson was a British agent.

Mr Hain, who is to separately meet Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern today, described the revelations around Mr Donaldson and Stormontgate as "spectacular" but denied any British conspiracy.

Mr Adams claimed that "dissident elements" within the British security and governmental system were behind the Donaldson disclosures, while DUP MEP Jim Allister said British prime minister Tony Blair had serious questions to answer.

Mr Hain rejected their comments. "Last week the DUP was accusing me of residing in a state cover-up to protect Sinn Féin. This week Sinn Féin are accusing the state of hounding them and (being) engaged in some kind of conspiracy. Neither event is true, both can't be right, both are actually wrong," he said yesterday.

He told ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme that "something like 1,000 documents were stolen from the Northern Ireland Office" ending up in west Belfast. He said the PSNI was praised by the Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan for how they handled the investigations into the alleged IRA spy ring at Stormont in 2002.

He added that in relation to the original spying charges against Mr Donaldson, his son-in-law Ciarán Kearney and Stormont civil servant William Mackessy, "events unfolded and the prosecution felt that they could not proceed in the public interest".

Mr Adams claimed there were elements "within the British system who have been involved for many years in a planned, systematic campaign to undermine the peace process.

"The onus to stop this lies with the British government. It has to take whatever steps are necessary to rein in the wreckers, who are opposing British government policy. And there has to be an end to political policing," he added.

"If we are really in a process in which everyone is committed to purely peaceful and democratic means then that must also apply to the British system. If the war is over for the British government then it has to end the activities of elements in its own system."

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said there must be an inquiry. "The prime minister is the ultimate head of security. He must, therefore, know that Donaldson was an agent."

SDLP justice spokesman Alex Attwood said there was a "growing sense that people in the British system and Provisional movement are up to their necks in all of this stuff".