The SDLP today stepped up its attack on Sinn Féin as tensions increased over failed efforts to secure an election pact between the parties.
Sinn Féin had sought to agree a deal which would avoid the groups competing for nationalist votes in two marginal constituencies, though the SDLP rejected the move.
Subsequent criticisms from republicans, who unilaterally withdrew from the South Belfast race despite the refusal of the SDLP to do the same in Fermanagh-South Tyrone, sparked an angry rebuke today from former SDLP leader Mark Durkan.
At an event where the current SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie unveiled her party’s manifesto, Mr Durkan launched a strongly worded attack on republicans and cited the history of IRA violence.
After Sinn Féin had claimed the SDLP were putting party interests before the needs of nationalist voters, Mr Durkan said: “A party that spent years justifying actual assassination has no problem in its conscience at all about outright character assassination of another party.”
The SDLP today underlined its record at Westminster, but while republicans refuse to take seats in the Commons they have accused the SDLP of having low rates of attendance at Parliament.
Mr Durkan said: “Does it mean we will be at Westminster all of the time? No. We get stuck-in at Westminster, we don’t get sucked in.” Ms Ritchie, who launched her manifesto at a west
Belfast packaging plant opened in 1999 by SDLP veteran John Hume, said jobs were a priority for her party, but she also rounded on the Sinn Féin criticisms.
She added: “Those who are offering little more in this election than the latest sectarian headcount are missing the point. And yesterday’s stunt in South Belfast is an insult to the intelligence of the electorate.
“Disguised to appear as an act of nationalist solidarity, Sinn Fein set out to ensure there would be a united unionist candidate so that they could achieve their real goal - to unseat Alasdair McDonnell, a man who has been an outstanding MP for all the people of the area.”
The Democratic Unionists, Ulster Unionists and Conservatives have already withdrawn from the Fermanagh-South Tyrone contest to back the independent candidate Rodney Connor they hope will prevent a return of the outgoing Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew.
Unionist efforts to secure an agreed candidate in South Belfast to oppose outgoing MP, Alasdair McDonnell of the SDLP, failed yesterday, but not before Sinn Féin made its shock announcement that it was withdrawing its candidate in the constituency, Alex Maskey.
Today Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams branded Ms Ritchie’s remarks as disparaging.
“Margaret Ritchie’s response to Sinn Féin’s decision to withdraw Alex Maskey form the South Belfast contest was to insult the republican electorate and dismiss their vote as irrelevant,” he said.
“If the SDLP want republicans to vote for them in South Belfast they are going to have to start asking them and they’re going to have to stop insulting the intelligence of the republican electorate.
“Sinn Féin obviously has many differences with the SDLP and with Alasdair McDonnell as well but we have given them a free run in South Belfast and the insulting and offensive way they have responded to that has caused some anger and confusion.
“There are lots of issues in this election and one of them is leadership and I think the SDLP is failing in this.”
Ms Ritchie said the electorate wanted a new kind of politics that focused on uniting communities.
She said of her opponents: “Don’t they understand there is a real cry going up in Northern Ireland for new politics — politics that addresses the problems people are facing right now? And in this election campaign under the manifesto we are launching today, the SDLP will offer that kind of political leadership.”
The five key pledges of her manifesto were to:
- Create 42,000 jobs through a green new deal budget and an all-island corporation tax rate.
- Lead on a shared future by pushing shared values in every aspect of government activity.
- Oppose cuts to frontline health services and revolutionise public health by starting a special preventative health fund.
- Ensure penalties fit the crime by stiffening sentencing for violent crime and making deep reforms to protect victims.
- Move on Irish unity by restarting the forum for unity and seeking the establishment of a Northern Ireland panel in Seanad Éireann.
PA