By Dipankar De Sarkar
London, Jan 8 (IANS) The head of the Northern Irish government in Britain was set to face intense questions Friday after claims that his 59-year-old wife - a British MP - failed to declare a gift of 50,000 pounds to her teenager lover.

Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland’s First Minister - equivalent to a chief minister - came under a cloud after the BBC reported his wife, Iris Robinson, had failed to declare the amount she obtained for her lover, then 19 years old, in 2008.

The money, obtained from two wealthy property developers, was gifted to help her lover Kirk McCambley open a restaurant, the BBC revealed in its Spotlight programme.

Iris Robinson, who is the MP for Strangford, faces allegations that she broke the law by failing to declare her financial interest in the business to either the British parliament in London or the regional Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast.

The affair over the Robinsons, the first couple of Northern Ireland, has rocked the British province.

Peter Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) attempted to brush away the claims Friday, calling it an “attempt to implicate me by insinuation and innuendo”, but his Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness of the Sinn Fein party, said he was “shocked”.

A day before the BBC programme was broadcast Thursday night, Iris Robinson issued a dramatic statement, confessing she had a “brief” affair in 2008 and that she had tried to commit suicide in March 2009.

Iris Robinson, who also belongs to the DUP, stepped down from public life 10 days ago.

Commentators in Northern Ireland said that the scandal could have a politically destabilising effect, as it comes at a time when Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing opposition to measures aimed at devolving policing and justice from direct rule in London to the regional assembly in Belfast.