SDLP will not go into opposition: McDonnell
SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell
THE SDLP will not leave the Stormont Executive to enter opposition, leader Alasdair McDonnell has said.
Ruling out what some in his party believe is its only hope of revival, the South Belfast MP and MLA said that there was no question of his party walking out of the Executive, despite its claims of maltreatment by the larger parties.
Instead, Dr McDonnell said that he would change the party’s Executive minister twice between now and the next Assembly election, in a move which mirrors the DUP’s tactics.
Dr McDonnell’s stance will have implications for the UUP, where some believe it could only enter opposition with the SDLP.
Dr McDonnell told the Irish News: “Removing our team from the Executive would in effect remove us from any influence we have there. If you have a house, even if it is a bad house, you don’t give it up and go and pitch a tent in the street, in the snow — that’s the point.”
And, despite claiming that the DUP and Sinn Fein are “bullying” the party’s Environment Minister, Alex Attwood, into accepting council reforms, Dr McDonnell said that his colleague would ultimately fall into line. The SDLP want the current 26 councils cut to 15 while the DUP and Sinn Fein want 11.
“Alex as a member of the Executive will implement the diktat of the Executive even though we don’t agree with it and we will fight for 15 [councils] and we will put up the arguments for 15. Alex Attwood will implement what he is forced to implement.”
Five times in his interview Dr McDonnell repeated the phrase: “There is no role in the present arrangement called opposition.”
Dr McDonnell said that perhaps “10 years down the line” his party would look at opposition if the Stormont system was reformed to give any opposition access to researchers and Executive information. He also said that politicians should get a pay rise and a better contribution to their pensions to keep them from “poverty”.
Writing in the News Letter on the day that Dr McDonnell was elected leader in November, a former senior SDLP adviser revealed that both Margaret Ritchie and Mark Durkan had considered taking the party’s minister out of the Executive. Ruairi O’Kane, who was director of communications until September, said the former leaders had eventually concluded that there was no single issue which the party could sell to the public as a reason for leaving but he said that he believed “the space for opposition will open up again”.
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
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