Adams urges British govt to set date for elections

The British government must set a firm date for elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly despite the internal problems affecting the Ulster Unionist Party, Gerry Adams said today.

The Sinn Féin president said the peace process had to be seen to be bigger than the future of any one party.

He added: “If the British government don’t go ahead with the elections that then proves the accusation that they think the fate of one party is greater than the process.”

He was speaking after Ulster Unionist Party officers selected a new disciplinary committee to decide the future of its three rebel MPs.

After a meeting last night at UUP headquarters it was announced that the party officers would defer making a formal referral to this committee for a further three weeks.

This is aimed at buying time to see if divisions between the pro and anti-agreement camps within the party can be resolved.

The process to form a new committee followed a High Court judgment earlier this month that an attempt to suspend MPs Jeffrey Donaldson, the Rev Martin Smyth and David Burnside breached the party’s constitution.

Attempts to discipline the three MPs came after they resigned the party whip at Westminster in protest at the UUP’s failure to reject the British and Irish governments’ joint declaration on the way forward for the peace process.

One of the major criticisms by the anti-agreement camp was the proposal to appoint an Irish Government representative on the Independent Monitoring Committee aimed at deciding whether parties in the Assembly had breached the agreement.

There is speculation that this body may now be delayed because of the row.

Mr Adams said Sinn Féin was opposed to the IMC because it was aimed at imposing sanctions on Sinn Fein.

He said: “If this was a serious commission the first thing we would have to look at is the British government’s refusal to call elections.”