Labour committed to devolved assemblies
Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy will today underline the Government’s commitment to reinvigorating the stalled Northern Ireland peace process.
Mr Murphy will tell delegates at Labour’s annual party conference in Bournemouth that the Blair administration strongly supports the restoration of devolved institutions and embraces new assembly elections.
Power sharing was suspended last October amid allegations that an IRA spy ring was operating at Stormont.
The speech comes after Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble met Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and Michael McGimpsey in London.
Mr Trimble recently urged Sinn Fein to act decisively to decommission the Irish Republican Army’s weaponry.
He reiterated his call to Sinn Fein counterpart Gerry Adams to provide clear and verifiable evidence that the had put its weapons permanently beyond use.
Mr Trimble has pencilled in assembly elections for 13 November but the date is contingent on Sinn Fein backing decommissioning wholeheartedly before October 16.
Mr Murphy said yesterday that the Government would never “throw in the towel” on rebuilding democratic institutions.
On BBC Radio Ulster, Mr Murphy said: “We want an election to happen. We want the democratic process to go forward.
“But at the same time we want to make sure that people understand that an assembly on its own isn’t the answer to the problems of the institutions. We have to have a government as well.
“I am not going to pre-empt what is going to come out over the next couple of days and weeks with regards to the negotiations. Our view in the government is clear: we want elections to happen but we equally say we are trying to ensure that we get an executive.”
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has said discussions would be delayed unless a firm date was given for Stormont elections.
Mr Adams said: “That is going to be the accelerator of the process. There is so much angst and anger in republicanism at the way the British government rejected initiatives by the IRA leadership on the one hand and by me on the other and then they went on to compound all of that by cancelling the election.
Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said it would be an untold disaster for the Good Friday Agreement if elections were indefinitely postponed.
“I think the next 10 days are critical because I certainly have a sense that if the election is to be called, it needs to be called within the next 10 days to two weeks possibly, at the very outside.
“There is an imperative and I think the British prime minister is very conscious of the fact that this window of opportunity is a narrowing window and we have to get his announcement as quickly as possible,” he said.
Home Secretary David Blunkett, Work and Pensions secretary Andrew Smith, and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott are also due to speak on Thursday.
