Fury over Sinn Fein access plan

Plans to give Sinn Fein's four MPs limited access to the House of Lords have been greeted with fury from Conservative peers.

Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Pat Doherty, and Michelle Gildernew refuse to take their Westminster seats and will not swear the oath of allegiance to the Queen required to sit in the Commons.

But last year MPs agreed to allow them to set up offices in the Commons and use its research and refreshment facilities.

In the Lords, Sinn Fein currently have no more rights than any other visitor.

Rule change

However, there are now plans to let them use the Lords Library reading room, to watch Lords' proceedings from the members' gallery or from the Bar of the House, and to sponsor visits on the Line of Route.

The proposed rule change will be discussed next Tuesday by the Lords' administration and works sub-committee.

Any changes would be subject to confirmation by the 28-strong, cross-party offices committee next month, and finally by the full house.

During question time on Monday, Deputy Lords Leader Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean said it was a matter for the house to decide, so the government had "no intention of expressing a view".

Tory ex-Cabinet minister Lord Lamont of Lerwick said there was "no reason" why the Lords should follow the decision of the Commons.

He said he "strongly objected" to any change in the Lords' rules.

Lady Symons said the Sinn Fein members currently had access to public areas of the Lords but it was usual for MPs to have access to the other places.

What repulses people up and down the country is the sight of people elected to parliament, refusing to take their seats but still receiving taxpayers' money

Lord Strathclyde
Tory peer

Tory ex-home secretary Lord Waddington said it would be an "intolerable insult to those of our members who have suffered at the hands of the IRA if murderers, apologists for murderers, and associates of murderers were to come anywhere near this place".

Lady Symons said feelings ran deep on the issue but pointed to the peace process, which, she said many would wish to support.

Tory ex-cabinet minister Lord Tebbit, who was injured and whose wife was paralysed in the IRA's Brighton bomb attack in 1984, sought assurances that the Lords' committee would have access to relevant security service data.

He pointed to the IRA's "continuing intelligence gathering" and their reported recent purchase of Russian weapons.

'Interim ban'

The committee could then "take a view as to whether the IRA's partners, and possibly members who are in the Commons, are fit to be trusted to come to this end of the corridor".

Labour former Northern Ireland minister Lord Dubs, supported the proposed changes.

He said it would be "unfortunate" if the Lords were to adopt different practices regarding MPs than the Commons.

Liberal Democrat peers' chief whip Lord Roper endorsed the "interim ban" and the fact that the issue was to be discussed by the Lords committees.

Lord Stoddart of Swindon (Ind Labour) warned access could include corridors near the offices of former Northern Ireland secretaries, "who may be at particular risk".

Tory peers' leader Lord Strathclyde said: "What repulses people up and down the country is the sight of people who have been elected to parliament, refusing to take their seats but still receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money."