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Unionists today demanded a public inquiry after Sinn Féin expelled a senior party official who had admitted working as a British spy. Denis Donaldson, Sinn Féin’s former head of administration at Stormont, owned up to working for British intelligence and the Police Service of Northern Ireland/Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch for more than 20 years. The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) said a public inquiry was now essential to explain the bizarre events, which unfolded just a week after the dropping of charges against Mr Donaldson and two other men accused of being part of a republican spy ring at Stormont...

A veteran Sinn Fein figure expelled from the party today has said he was a British agent for two decades. Denis Donaldson headed the party's administration office at Stormont before his October 2002 arrest over an alleged spy ring led to its collapse. Mr Donaldson said he was recruited in the 1980s as a paid agent and deeply regretted his activities. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams claimed he was about to be "outed" by the same "securocrats" who set him up as a spy. Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive collapsed in October 2002 following the arrests of three men, who had...