Blair set for push to restore Stormont
Talks have been going on between the British Government and Sinn Féin officials since. Mr Blair told Mr Adams at their last meeting in Chequers in January there could be no inclusive politics in the North while the IRA remained active.
Following Westminster and local election successes which saw Sinn Fein gain one MP and 18 council seats, Mr Adams said the vote had been an endorsement of his appeal to the Provisionals to consider embracing the democratic alternative.
At the launch of his party’s campaign against the EU Constitution in Dublin the West Belfast MP said: “In this the final phase of Tony Blair’s premiership, we have a very unique opportunity to sort out all of these matters. But it needs a collective push to move it forward.Mr Blair has been very good on some of these core issues. It is my view that he wants to bed them down. He wants it to be part of his legacy and therefore there is a relatively limited time.” Democratic Unionist sources said the party would press the prime minister on Thursday not to wait for republicans to embrace democracy but to move quickly instead to form a devolved government at which freezes out SF.
But the party will also insist Mr Blair should acknowledge its electoral successes by granting them House of Lords seats.
“It is quite ridiculous that you have a situation where the DUP has nine MPs now and no one in the Lords while the UUP has been reduced to just one MP with eight peers,” a spokesperson said. “This is an issue the party feels very strongly about and the government will have to recognise the strength of our mandate.”
In the Westminister election the DUP gained three seats from the rival Ulster Unionists which also lost a seat to the nationalist SDLP.
The DUP would like to form a voluntary coalition with Mark Durkan’s SDLP which excludes Sinn Féin.
However, Mr Durkan has refused to entertain any changes to the system of devolved government which includes Sinn Féin.
