SDLP resists bid to oust Sinn Fein

Unionist moves to oust Sinn Fein from government in Northern Ireland will not receive the nationalist SDLP’s crucial backing, the Labour Party conference heard tonight.

Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble and the anti-Good Friday Agreement Democratic Unionists have both tabled motions calling for republican ministers to be excluded from the power-sharing Executive over the IRA’s failure to disarm.