Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, has been taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack.
The 66-year-old was initially admitted to the Ulster hospital in east Belfast on Monday morning after feeling unwell. He was transferred to the Royal Victoria hospital in Belfast, where his family are at his bedside and have asked for privacy.
Confirming the first minister’s illness, a Democratic Unionist party spokesman said Robinson “felt unwell this morning and has been admitted to the hospital for some further tests”.
The DUP leader had been about to enter a difficult week in Ulster politics amid warnings that the Northern Ireland Executive might collapse over a failure to implement the welfare reform bill.
The two nationalist parties in the five-party power-sharing coalition at Stormont, Sinn Féin and the SDLP, had pledged over the weekend to veto the bill, which paves the way for cuts to the public sector and spending.
Robinson and the DUP have insisted Sinn Féin and the SDLP had signed up welfare reforms as part of the Stormont House Agreement at the start of this year. The cuts to jobs and service are part of a deal with the UK Treasury to obtain a low corporation tax for Northern Ireland.
Robinson has held the post of first minister since 2008, with his former political foe Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin as his deputy.
Concerned to hear First Minister Peter Robinson has been admitted to hospital.My thoughts & prayers are with him,Iris & family.
— Martin McGuinness (@M_McGuinness_SF) May 25, 2015
“My thoughts and prayers are with him, Iris and family,” McGuinness tweeted on Monday.
Mike Nesbitt, leader of the Ulster Unionist party, also wished Robinson a speedy recovery. He said: “I am sorry to hear that the first minister has been taken into hospital this morning and I wish Peter a full and speedy recovery. Our thoughts are with him and his family.”
Robinson has weathered both personal and political controversy. In 2010 his wife, Iris, was expelled from the DUP after she was revealed to have had an affair with a teenager.Robinson threatened to resign in February 2014 unless there was a judicial inquiry into the on-the-runs scandal, in which secret “amnesty” letters were given to more than 180 IRA suspects.
David Cameron caved in to pressure and promised an inquiry hours before a midnight deadline set by Robinson, pulling Northern Ireland back from the brink of political meltdown.
The DUP leader’s ultimatum followed the collapse of the trial of John Downey, suspected of involvement in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing which killed four soldiers.
