DR Mo Mowlam last night confirmed that a Labour government would reinstate the Northern Ireland Forum.
The Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, responding to yesterday's announcement by the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, of the forum's suspension and comments from Mr David Trimble, the UUP leader, said Labour had originally proposed the amendment to the legislation requiring that a suspension of the forum would accompany any suspension of the talks process.
Dr Mowlam indicated a Labour government would table the necessary House of Commons order in May in order to provide for a resumption of the forum alongside the renewal of the inter party talks process at Stormont.
Meanwhile, the Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, told reporters in Belfast yesterday that the party could be at the table when the Stormont multi party talks resumed on June 3rd if the British government so desired.
He urged Mr John Major to take advantage of the period between now and the Westminster elections to authorise contact between the British government and Sinn Fein.
"We believe that there is in this 12 to 13 week period between now and the resumption of the Stormont talks process, quite an interesting and possibly unique circumstance where John Major might find himself no longer a prisoner of the arithmetic at Westminster or his dependency on the unionists."
However, contact was essential to clear up outstanding issues: "You're talking about 13 weeks in which we could resolve these problems, but the British would need to talk to us. You could actually be in the position on June 3rd of Sinn Fein having cleared all the hurdles that the British could devise and ready to begin the process, if the British government want that to happen.
Between now and the Westminster election, Mr Major was "effectively free from the considerations that prevented him from developing the situation in the past", Mr McLaughlin said.
"If he is genuinely sincere in pursuing a peace process then the first thing and the simple thing that he can do is authorise contact between his officials and Sinn Fein to see if we can clear up any of the existing misunderstandings that are preventing a situation developing to the point where not; only do we have meaningful negotiations but we also have an entirely peaceful environment in which they can be conducted."
The Hume Adams "package" presented to Mr Major on October 10th was still on the table. "We're talking about a commitment to inclusive negotiations without preconditions a timeframe within which those negotiations will happen and a range of confidence building measures - indeed Gerry Adams explained the IRA's role in confidence building in those circumstances.
"We're talking about dealing with the question of whether or not John Major unilaterally had introduced new hoops for Sinn Fein to jump through. We are saying that the gap of mistrust between republicans and the British government can be bridged if people wish to do so.
"So we asked for meetings with officials, that was refused we have written and we have attempted to anticipate the type of questions that would be put to us by the British if they were to talk to us."
The Prime Minister had insulted Sinn Fein: "John Major said even an IRA cessation was not enough. We now have to depend on the assessment of the RUC and British military intelligence and it was a calculated insult to our intelligence.
"Despite that insult, despite that very clear declaration that John Major wasn't ready for a peace process and didn't want a restoration of the IRA cessation in practical effect - he needed to keep the unionists on board - Sinn Fein has gone on with the very difficult and the very frustrating task of trying to command his attention and we will continue doing that until he's out of office and we're dealing with somebody else."
He said Sinn Fein was "constantly looking for opportunities, for space" and putting up ideas and possibilities for making progress. "This is a situation where there is that degree of limbo when, in fact, the unionists and even Tory backbenchers cannot affect the electoral date that John Major has set himself."