SF policing motion will be backed

AN overwhelming majority of the 2,000 Sinn Féin supporters attending the party’s extraordinary árd fheis tomorrow will, most likely, back support for policing in the North.

The party leadership has been buoyed by a series of meetings it has held over the past week, in which its stance was strongly endorsed by its supporters.

The latest, held in Derry, attracted more than 1,000 people who loudly applauded leader Gerry Adams when he said if the party supported policing, it would be to “put manners” on the PSNI.

It also emerged that Mr Adams asked dissident republican groups, including Republican Sinn Féin, to meet with him as part of its consultation process but that invitation was rejected.

It is also understood that dissident paramilitary groups have also strongly denied claims by Sinn Féin leaders, in particular Martin McGuinness, that their lives have been threatened.

At the meeting in the RDS tomorrow, Mr Adams will make an opening address before the party’s justice spokesman Gerry Kelly will deliver a report on policing and then the motion on police will be formally opposed by Mr McGuinness.

However, the leadership is confident that the motion will be comfortably passed.