DUP slams SDLP for supporting McGuinness

The DUP has hit out at the SDLP for failing to support a motion to have Education Minister Martin McGuinness ousted from the Stormont Executive.

The party's deputy leader, Peter Robinson, slated the SDLP for supporting politicians who have links to paramilitaries.

Mr McGuinness admitted last week that he was the IRA's second-in-command in Derry on Bloody Sunday in 1972.

After that admission, Mr Robinson tabled a motion of no confidence in Mr McGuinness, but the SDLP has joined forces with Sinn Fein, thereby ensuring that the no-confidence motion cannot be passed.

Any vote in the Assembly needs at least 40% support from both the unionist and nationalist sides of the chamber.

The SDLP said the DUP motion was designed "to destabilise the Executive".