Commons reject Sinn Féin exclusion motion

A motion to exclude Sinn Féin's four MPs from their Westminster offices was defeated in a Commons vote last night.

The motion, tabled by the Tory Party with the support of the UUP and DUP, was overwhelmingly rejected by 336 votes to 140.

During the debate, South Antrim MP David Burnside criticised the government over "double standards being set for Members of this House".

He said: "If I had never been to Northern Ireland or known anything about it, I would still recognise the double standard that has been set, with two classes of MP. Because Sinn Féin threatens violence, it gets something special that would not have been allowed to a Scottish nationalist or a Welsh nationalist. That is a double standard. It demeans this House to grant facilities to that organisation."

Ahead of yesterday's vote, the Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Quentin Davis, said that Sinn Féin had "abused" their position following the arrests of people linked to the party in relation to investigations into a spy-ring in the Northern Ireland Office.

"It is quite clear that the very substantial concession made to Sinn Féin-IRA last December by granting a special status at Westminster for Sinn Féin MPs has been abused," Mr Davis said.

"Far from consolidating the Belfast Agreement – or from its encouraging Sinn Féin-IRA into an exclusively peaceful and democratic course – there have been a succession of serious breaches of the ceasefire and the Agreement"

The new Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said denying Sinn Féin its Westminster facilities would have no impact on the persuading militant republicans to move towards exclusively peaceful means.

Mr Murphy also said that the government would endeavour to see the return of the devolved institutions as quickly as possible.

(GMcG)