Paisley: SF inclusion unacceptable

Ian Paisley has said he would not be willing to accept the title of First Minister in an administration which included Sinn Féin members or to sit down and negotiate with Sinn Féin while the IRA retained its weapons.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t accept the principle that we must sit down with armed terrorists who have enough weapons in their possession to blow up the whole of Northern Ireland.

“A democrat will not sit down with armed gangsters and murderers to negotiate the future of this country and that is a position that we are going to cling very firmly to.

“The British government can neither buy us nor beat us nor break us, because it is a democratic principle that we don’t engage with armed terrorists to find a solution to a situation like this.

“Men in my party are principled people who have put down their lives on this issue and they are not going to be bought or borrowed or got at by anyone. If anybody wanted to do that, the party would immediately take action to remove them.”

Asked if he could accept the title of First Minister, Dr Paisley said: “Not with IRA/Sinn Féin in government.”

He added: “I believe we have a golden opportunity now to have this matter settled once and for all.

“If you are going to take part in the government of Northern Ireland, you can’t have an armed army to use in blackmailing the British government and trying to get more concessions.”

Dr Paisley dismissed suggestions that he might resign his position having taken his party to victory in last week’s poll.

“After working all my life to deal with this very grievous matter, people would think I was a real fool to say, having achieved it, ‘Goodbye boys, I’m away now’,” he said.

Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey said Dr Paisley could not be allowed to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement.

He told Today: “70% of the elected representatives are from pro-Agreement parties. The Good Friday Agreement is a treaty between two governments and has been endorsed by a referendum in Ireland as a whole, so it is not something that can be tinkered with.

“A new agreement would require a new treaty and a referendum. It’s not a matter for one party to say they will turn that agreement on its head.

“The DUP must realise that they can’t usurp the will of the people.”