DUP anger over Bradley

Changes to policing were outlined in the Agreement

Unionists have demanded the removal of the vice chair of the Policing Board after he warned about the impact of any dissident republican attacks on the police during a political vacuum.

Denis Bradley said progress made on policing in Northern Ireland was being threatened by the political vacuum.

Government sources told the BBC that Mr Bradley was an "important voice in arguing for full cross-community engagement in policing".

Responding to unionist calls for his resignation, the sources added that Mr Bradley had been speaking in a personal capacity.

They said cross-community engagement in policing was "vital to a peaceful and stable Northern Ireland".

Mr Bradley said nationalists may have to reconsider their involvement in policing if the stalemate continues.

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He said if the political problems were not resolved within two weeks, the governments should impose joint authority or another mechanism other than direct rule.

He said republican areas in Londonderry and elsewhere were not being policed properly because of the political deadlock.

"If a police officer was killed somewhere within the next couple of months - within that vacuum - I think that policing could be set back for a long period of time," he said.

DUP MP for North Belfast Nigel Dodds demanded the immediate resignation of Mr Bradley.

Mr Dodds said: "First and foremost, it is not Denis Bradley's job to be making any comment whatsoever on the status of the political process in Northern Ireland.

"We have heard for years how politics and policing should be separate. Denis Bradley ought to heed that advice."

DUP assembly member in Londonderry Gregory Campbell said his party would not be pressurised into making a quick deal to reinstate devolution.

Denis Bradley: Political deadlock affecting policing

He said if Mr Bradley was throwing that down as "some sort of gauntlet to try and push people into accepting a deal" it would not work.

"We had a mandate 12 months ago and that mandate was to get a fair deal," he said.

"We are not going to be rolled over by anyone, be they a vice-chairman of the Policing Board or anyone else.

"We have got to work until we get this deal right."

The DUP representative on the Policing Board, Ian Paisley Junior, said he had written to the Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, to ask him to decide whether Mr Bradley should remain on the board.

The SDLP's Alex Attwood admitted there was cause for concern, but said that everybody "has gone in with their eyes open".

"We know there are risks, but there are also opportunities," said the party's Policing Board representative.

"As the last two years have proven, we can bring about, as Denis Bradley says, massive change without political agreement and despite republican hostility."

'Vindication'

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams welcomed Mr Bradley's comments, saying they were a "vindication" of the republican position on policing.

Mr Adams called on the British and Irish Governments to press forward on their own if the DUP did not indicate in the near future that it was ready to do a deal.

The changes to policing in Northern Ireland came as part of sweeping reforms to the service under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace accord.

Sinn Fein has boycotted the new policing structures, insisting that the government's policing reforms need to go further if they are ever going to participate.

The Northern Ireland Policing Board handles some of the most sensitive issues facing policing and holds PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde and his senior officers to account.