SF 'hedging bets on policing'

SF 'hedging bets on policing'

Mark Durkan: Sinn Fein in danger of missing the boat on policing

Sinn Fein have been accused of trying to "hedge their bets" over the issue of policing ahead of Assembly elections.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan said Sinn Fein were in danger of missing the boat by refusing to join the Policing Board before elections due to take place on 29 May.

Sinn Fein national chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said earlier that his party had moved closer towards joining the Policing Board.

He said they were approaching an "historic moment".

The Sinn Fein executive pledged at its annual conference on Sunday to hold a special ard fheis (conference) on policing when they have decided the time was right.

Delegates at the conference rejected a motion to link any decision to support the police in Northern Ireland with an end to British jurisdiction in the province.

Sinn Fein policing spokesman Gerry Kelly said on Monday that a conference on policing would not be held before the Assembly elections.

He said that a decision would be made when the party believed it had reached the right threshold.

However, Mr Durkan accused Sinn Fein of pandering to different groups within and outside the party on the issue.

"They keep telling one group of people, 'yes, we are nearly there and we're going to do it,' and of course, on another they will be using the fact that they are holding out on policing as their remaining totem of subversion to appeal to another element of support," Mr Durkan said.

Early movement

On Sunday, Martin McGuinness said he hoped to see early movement on the issues of plastic bullets and Special Branch.

Mitchel McLaughlin: 'historic moment' approaching

Mr McGuinness said changes to criminal justice legislation would prevent cover-ups if police engaged in criminal activity, but rejected suggestions that a deal had already been done.

On Saturday, party leader Gerry Adams said he could foresee a situation where Sinn Fein would join the Policing Board.

Mr Adams said the people his party represented "wanted policed and deserve to be policed".

However, he said the "terms and context" for Sinn Fein joining the board were not yet right.

In an interview for BBC's Inside Politics programme, he said the party would look at what proposals the two governments came up with and decide how to move forward from there.

Mr Adams said: "Do I see circumstances in which we will be part of the Policing Board - democratically taking up our position there? Yes, of course I can conceive of such a situation.

"Is it at the moment? - no it isn't."

The power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland was suspended last October amid allegations of intelligence gathering by the IRA at the Northern Ireland Office.