Cameron makes first North visit as Tory leader

David Cameron will make his first visit to Northern Ireland today since becoming Conservative Party leader.

David Cameron will make his first visit to Northern Ireland today since becoming Conservative Party leader.

He will fly into Belfast where he will visit a school and a training centre.

The British opposition leader retained Aylesbury MP David Lidington as the Conservative spokesman on Northern Ireland in his new shadow Cabinet.

Mr Cameron is expected to repeat his party's criticism of government policy in Northern Ireland, particularly over legislation enabling people who committed murders before the 1998 Belfast Agreement to stay out of jail.

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Speculation has been mounting at Westminster that the British government will amend the controversial Northern Ireland (Offences) Act on the final day of its Committee Stage to avoid a defeat in the House of Lords.

The Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Democratic Unionists, the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP have all been highly critical of the Bill as have victims groups.

In particular they have been pressing the British government to write into the legislation a requirement that anyone applying to avoid jail under the scheme would have to attend a special tribunal to consider their guilt or innocence in the crime of which they have been suspected.

PA