According to the Sinn Fein MP, police informed him he was the target of a grouping calling themselves the 'Orange Volunteers' over the course of the weekend.

"I was informed by the PSNI that a unionist paramilitary gang calling itself the Orange Volunteers are claiming to have carried out a murder attempt on myself over the weekend in the Newry area," Mr Murphy said.

The murder plot follows incidents in Tyrone last month, when pipe bombs were discovered in the Cookstown area.

"Sinn Féin are obviously taking these events seriously. But we will not allow reactionary unionist elements to deflect us from our work in representing people and driving forward the United Ireland agenda," Mr Murphy continued.

The Newry and Armagh representative called on unionists to condemn the death threat.

He said: "What we do need to hear now is strong words and actions from unionist political leaders in the face of what are clearly attempts to attack the political process from elements within their community."