SDLP Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan has described Sinn Féin’s sudden concern over the impact of welfare reforms as ‘rank hypocrisy’ after the party ignored SDLP objections to the measures and voted them through the Assembly.
Mr Durkan said that it was ‘disingenuous in the extreme’ for MP Elisha McCallion to attack the Universal Credit rollout after her party was responsible for giving welfare powers to the Tories.
He said: “The rollout of universal credit has been an unmitigated disaster.
“In England, Scotland and Wales, new welfare rules have shunted more and more families into poverty, forcing them to turn to food banks and loan sharks for basic living essentials.
“All parties should be doing all we can to avert that hardship falling on people here.
“But it is rank hypocrisy for Sinn Féin MPs to cry crocodile tears over Universal Credit and welfare reform after they berated and bemoaned these very concerns when the SDLP raised them throughout the legislative process.
“Worse than that, they were complicit in the shameful return of welfare powers to this Tory government.
“It is disingenuous in the extreme for MPs like Elisha McCallion to now try to whitewash Sinn Féin’s welfare shame.
“Even more so given that she will not stand against the Tories at Westminster where this has all been decided, thanks to her party.
“The SDLP will continue to show leadership on this issue.
“We will continue to fight the corner of hard pressed people and defend them against vicious Tory austerity, even when others have given up.”
