Police raided the offices of Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland Assembly building at Stormont and several private addresses before charging Sinn Fein’s head of administration at Stormont with passing on documents that could be ‘useful to terrorists in planning or carrying out acts of violence’; two others were also charged. The action came after a year’s investigation of spying by the Irish Republican Army at the Northern Ireland Office; transcripts of conversations between Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and President George Bush of the United States were said to have been copied. Mr David Trimble, First Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly, flew to London for talks with Mr Blair. In an Internet poll mounted by YouGov on behalf of the Daily Telegraph, only 5 per cent of respondents agreed that Mr Iain Duncan Smith provided ‘strong and effective leadership’ of the Conservatives. At the Conservative party conference, Mrs Theresa May, the party chairman, said that they had a reputation as the ‘nasty party’.
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