SDLP criticised over policing comments

Fermanagh and South Tyrone UUP Assembly member Sam Foster has described as "misleading" and "inaccurate" the response of some parties to the reference in the Queen's speech to forthcoming policing legislation.

Mr Foster was speaking in the wake of the SDLP leader Mark Durkan's claim that the policing legislation changes would "implement detailed commitments made to the SDLP at Weston Park".

Earlier this week, Mr Durkan said: "The commitments won by the SDLP mean that the power of the Policing Board to hold inquiries will be strengthened and the powers of the Secretary of State will be cut back. The Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan will also be able to investigate police policies and practices, ensuring the highest standards of accountability and human rights.

"Above all, the new legislation will clear the way for Gardai to serve in the PSNI with full policing powers. This has been a key demand of the SDLP and lies at the heart of our North/South policing agenda. Now it is going to be a concrete reality."

However, former environment minister Sam Foster said that Unionists should have nothing to fear from the commitment that "legislation will be brought forward on policing in Northern Ireland".

He said: "It is unfortunate that a sensible debate about policing legislation in Northern Ireland has instead - yet again - been hijacked by those with narrow political, and at times sectarian, agendas.

"We have been informed by the SDLP that it has an 'agreement' with Her Majesty's government, and that there would be no toleration of any attempt to alter that 'agreement'. It seems to have been forgotten that laws within the United Kingdom are not made at the behest of the SDLP in behind-the-scenes talks with civil servants – laws are made by Parliament."

Mr Foster added: "Significant changes that are designed to act as concessions to the SDLP and Sinn Fein would be nothing less than unacceptable political interference in policing."

Elsewhere, the UUP's North Belfast assembly member Fred Cobain has said that there is "no doubt that Sinn Fein will make an attempt to join the Policing Board".

Mr Cobain said that he believed that Sinn Fein had been "repositioning" itself over the past nine months in order to join up to policing.

However, he warned: "There is no possibility of us sitting with Sinn Fein while the IRA is still active. You can't be sitting on a policing board while you have an organisation which is actually targeting policemen for assassination – that would be absolutely ludicrous."

Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey has dismissed the comments as "silly speculation".

(GMcG)