SF expulsion 'would lead to peace process collapse'

Sinn Féin today warned that Northern Ireland’s peace process would collapse if the UK government gave in to demands to expel it from talks to restore devolution.

The party’s chairman Mitchell McLaughlin said Sinn Féin was “an absolutely essential element” of the peace process and was electorally too strong to be sidelined.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble this week demanded Sinn Féin was kicked out of the talks after the attempted kidnapping of a dissident republican. He said he would walk away from the talks unless the UK government took action.

The IRA has denied it was behind the attempted abduction.

Speaking ahead of Sinn Féin’s annual party conference Mr McLaughlin said his party was the “engine” of the peace process.

“If people want to walk away from the peace process then perhaps they can go down that road,” he said.

“But my view is we are an absolutely essential element in the peace process and there is no possibility…of abandoning Sinn Féin.”

He told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: “We are also far too strong in electoral terms. We are the second largest party in the north, we are now the largest pro-agreement party in the north and we are the third largest party on the island of Ireland.

“How can anyone who would claim to be a democrat talk about abandoning such a sizeable electorate?”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair this week told Sinn Féin it had to realise that unless it was prepared to commit to exclusively peaceful means it could not be part of the government of Northern Ireland.

He said unionists had said they were prepared to share power in principle provided there was a commitment to exclusively peaceful means.

Four men have been charged in connection with the attempted kidnapping of republican Bobby Tohill from a Belfast city centre bar.

Last Saturday Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde claimed the Provisional IRA was behind the incident, sparking unionist demands for Sinn Féin’s expulsion from the review.

But in a statement released to the republican newspaper An Phoblacht, an IRA source denied the attempted abduction was sanctioned by its leadership.