Northern Ireland's first minister has said that Conservative proposals for English-only Commons votes would "damage the Union".
In an interview with ePolitix.com, Peter Robinson warned David Cameron and his party that "a lot more thought" had to go into the plan to exclude MPs representing Northern Irish, Welsh or Scottish seats from voting on matters pertaining to England.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader said: "This is a very complex issue and I'm not sure that I have heard any answer that is satisfactory thus far.
"I can well understand that where we are at the present time is far from satisfactory for people from England, perhaps less from a Northern Ireland point of view and more from Scotland point of view. If Scottish members can stop things happening in England that they enjoy in Scotland then that is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs.
"The answer is not in English-only votes and I think that a lot more thought has to go into it or else we will damage the Union and I don't think that is either what the Conservative Party or the Democratic Unionists want to see.
"At least it is clear that David Cameron is thinking about the issue and I think some others need to start thinking about it. The debate is on and he's made an opening contribution to it and it is out there to be discussed. I don't think we have arrived at a conclusion to that debate but the issue does need to be addressed let's work on it until we find a resolution."
Despite Robinson's difference of opinion with Cameron over the issue he also said that the DUP would "lean" towards the Tories in the event of a hung Parliament.
Asked what his party would do if they held the balance of power in Westminster, Robinson said: "We will do what anybody would expect a mature political party to do. We will look at what is in the interests of the United Kingdom as a whole, we will look at what is in the interests of Northern Ireland and we will make a decision based on that and that alone.
"We have a good relationship with the Conservative Party and that might lean us in that direction but as you saw with the 42-day vote issues are important to us.
"We will look at the situation at the time though clearly there would be an assumption in favour of the Conservative Party if the circumstances were right."
