SDLP members warned of serious threat from loyalists

Police in the North have warned the SDLP that all of the party's elected representatives are under "immediate and serious" threat from loyalist paramilitaries.

The threat comes from a breakaway faction of the UDA in south-east Antrim that has been involved in a feud with the group's mainstream leadership.

According to the SDLP, the police have serious intelligence that the threat is real and all party members have been informed of the situation.

The development is believed to be linked to a decision by Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie to withhold British Government funding from the UDA due to the group's failure to decommission and end criminality.