The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, and the British government are appeasing terrorists in the North in their desperation to keep the peace process alive, a former British security minister for Northern Ireland said yesterday.
While Dr Mowlam has won praise from the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, for her recent handling of events, the Conservative former Northern Ireland security minister, Mr Michael Mates, yesterday expressed his distaste for her visit to prisoners in the Maze prison on Friday.
He also criticised her meeting yesterday with Senator Ted Kennedy, and questioned Mr Blair's judgement in receiving the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, at Downing Street before Christmas.
Mr Mates said he did not doubt Dr Mowlam's courage but went on: "But the question has to be asked: why did it come to this? The answer . . . lies in one word - appeasement.
"For seven months, the government has given way again and again to the men of terror and has persuaded the Irish and American governments to do the same."
Instead of aiding the peace process, concessions to the republican side had built up resentment in unionists, Mr Mates said in yesterday's Mail on Sunday.
He urged Dr Mowlam to take a more robust approach. "I believe the only way forward for her is to use an old Ulster adage: `Not an inch!'
"She must make clear to everyone that the concessions must now come from the men of violence. The Mitchell principles [of non-violence], to which the IRA/Sinn Fein paid lip service in the summer, must now be seriously addressed.
"That means, above all, discussion about the handing over of the weapons of terror," said Mr Mates.
Yesterday the shadow Foreign Secretary, Mr Michael Howard, said the opposition continued to back the government in its efforts to bring peace to the North. However, it was critical of Dr Mowlam's decision to visit prisoners in the Maze.
There was a danger, he said, the visit had glorified and legitimised the men of violence. "I think it was a mistake, I don't think it was something that she should have done, for those reasons."
Later a Conservative spokeswoman insisted that the traditional bipartisan approach to Northern Ireland had not fractured.
She said Mr Mates was not a member of the front bench.