SDLP deputy leader is to stand down from Stormont

STORMONT Agriculture Minister Brid Rodgers is to stand down from the Northern Ireland Assembly at the next election.

The nationalist SDLP deputy leader said she would not be seeking her party’s nomination to run for the Assembly next May in her Upper Bann constituency.

She said her decision was “for family reasons”.

Mrs Rodgers, who received acclaim for her handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis, said she was certain the SDLP would still do well in Upper Bann without her.

She added: “While not being a candidate myself, I will play my full role as deputy leader of the party within Upper Bann and throughout the other constituencies to ensure a large turnout of SDLP support and the return of a strong SDLP team to the next assembly.”

Mrs Rodgers said she was committed to completing her work as agriculture minister and would be focusing her energies on key areas of major significance to the farming industry.

Upper Bann SDLP members are due to select candidates for the Assembly election on September 30.

Mrs Rodgers’s decision to withdraw will surprise many within the party.

Last year, she became deputy leader of the SDLP at its party conference, comfortably winning a five-way battle for the post. She has been the party’s best known female face, having been a founder member and involved in the Catholic civil rights movement before the SDLP’s foundation.

She is a former Irish senator and was the chair of her party’s negotiating team in the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement.

Mrs Rodgers was also prominent in the Drumcree marching dispute with Orangemen in Portadown, where she often strongly articulated nationalist opposition to a parade through the Garvaghy Road. Married with six children, she is a native Irish speaker from Gweedore, Co Donegal, but has lived in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, since 1960.

Her handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis resulted in her being chosen as the Channel 4 Politician of the Year in the Northern Ireland Assembly last year.

Her resignation at the next Stormont election will coincide with the departure of former deputy leader and former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon. Former party leader John Hume has also stepped down from the Assembly.

Party leader Mark Durkan described Mrs Rodgers’s decision as a “defining moment” in Northern Ireland politics. “She has made an enormous contribution over more than a generation, as someone involved with the campaign for social justice and the civil rights movement and as someone who brought respect to politics at a time when there was very little respect,” he said.

Mr Durkan said he had tried to persuade Mrs Rodgers to stand again, and confirmed she would remain as deputy leader of the party throughout the campaign.