SDLP leader Colum Eastwood
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has dismissed Sinn Féin’s attempt to snatch a third seat in Foyle.
He was speaking at his party’s annual conference being held in Derry for the first time.
Mr Eastwood, who became leader last November, said the party was using the event to set out its shop window for the forthcoming Assembly elections in May.
He hit out at Martin McGuinness and Sinn Féin for targeting three seats in his constituency.
Foyle is an SDLP stronghold with three MLAs – Mr Eastwood, Mark H Durkan and Gerry Diver – compared to Sinn Féin’s two of Raymond McCartney and Maeve McLaughlin.
Mr McGuinness has quit his Mid-Ulster Assembly seat and received his party’s backing to enter the fray in Foyle and take a seat from the SDLP.
Mr Eastwood told his party faithful: “The Joint First Minister Martin McGuinness has announced that he is coming back into Derry in the expectation that he will be gifted three seats.
“Well Martin should take a look and see what happened recently in Donegal. Three into two won’t go. And in a few short weeks’ time Derry will tell them the same.
“We will only enter the Executive if we can agree to a Programme for Government which actually meets the need of people in the North,” he said.
“That Programme for Government needs to include a commitment to distribute investment in jobs, infrastructure and education across all of Northern Ireland, not just parts of Belfast and its suburbs.
“Spending on jobs and infrastructure must be targeted to the areas where it’s required. Massive regional imbalances must be addressed.”
He called for greater devolution, accusing Sinn Féin and the DUP seeing lower corporation tax in the Republic of Ireland and failing to see “the diversity of policies which led to the Southern economy’s success”.
“One of the South’s main policies was to invest in education and skills. Stormont’s leadership are doing the opposite,” he said.
He said that Northern Ireland risks being left behind in a digital age and called for a more agile and innovative public sector and government to deal with “the white heat of this revolution”.
He touched upon the upcoming centenary of the Easter Rising and the recent violence against security services in Northern Ireland.
“I invite all those parties who claim inheritance and inspiration from the 1916 Rising to join with me in stating that violence will never again be used as a political tactic on this island,” he declared.
“One hundred years on, this would be a powerful statement of the values and principles in today’s Ireland.
“Those who go against this, go against the sovereign authority of the Irish people.”
