SDLP rules out election pact with Sinn Féin

The SDLP has ruled out a nationalist electoral pact with Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland during the general election.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP)

Read More:

East Belfast, North Belfast and the border constituencies of Newry & Armagh and Fermanagh & South Tyrone will be covered.

Party strategists aim to increase the number of unionists at Westminster with the odds of a hung parliament and increased influence for the smaller parties high.

Sinn Féin had called on nationalists to come together in response to the unionists’ “narrow sectarian and conservative agenda” for the May election.

However, SDLP Stormont MLA Alban Maginness, a candidate for North Belfast, said: “Our position is very clear, we don’t enter into sectarian pacts.”