Unionists demand exclusion of Sinn Fein from Assembly

Ulster Unionists set a deadline of a week for Sinn Fein to be excluded from the Northern Ireland Assembly or the party will withdraw its Ministers, bringing about the collapse of devolved government in Ulster.

The Government should send a motion to the Assembly proposing to exclude Sinn Fein, Ulster Unionist leader and First Minister David Trimble said today.

Speaking after talks with Tony Blair in Downing Street, Mr Trimble said unless that was done he would have no alternative but to remove his ministers from Northern Ireland's administration.

"Our proposal to him, expressed very strongly indeed, is that that is the course he should follow," Mr Trimble said after nearly an hour of talks.

Mr Trimble said the Government had warned in July that certain activities were unacceptable and were giving a "yellow card" to the Republican movement that "if these matters came to light, it would be prepared to send to the Northern Ireland Assembly a motion calling for the exclusion of Sinn Fein from the administration".

He went on: "It is our view that that is what the Government should now do.

"We have asked the Government to send to the Northern Ireland Assembly such a motion."

Mr Trimble said the Assembly would be meeting in plenary session on Monday: "The appropriate time in our view for such a motion would be on that day. The sequence would be that Sinn Fein would be excluded from the administration."

That would mean it would be "not as inclusive as we would like it to be".

Mr Trimble added: "The Prime Minister accepts we are at a defining moment, that the time when the republicans could ride the two horses is at an end and he has himself been pointing this out."

Mr Trimble said Mr Blair must put forward a motion adding: "In the event of that not happening by Monday and Tuesday that will leave us with no alternative but to remove ourselves from the administration."

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said a series of meetings with other party leaders would now follow, adding: "At the moment, it is not easy to see a way through."

Following the meeting with Mr Trimble, Mr Reid said that the Government would not decide what steps to take until it had consulted with the other main Northern Ireland parties.

He acknowledged however that it was difficult to see how they could keep the devolved administration going.

"We are committed to try to get a way of proceeding with power–sharing but at the moment it isn't easy to see how we can find a way through," he said.

"There are a range of options that are in front of us.

"It isn't easy to see which would be the best in terms of preserving both the process and the chances of getting power–sharing up and going again."

After emerging from No 10, Mr Trimble said Friday's events when police raided Sinn Fein's Stormont offices had shown that the republican movement had been engaged in an "extensive intelligence gathering operation which has been operating illegally and has been gathering intelligence both from the point of view of assisting terrorist operations and from the point of view of gathering political intelligence.

"We know that for a period of time of about a year the republican movement had access to a wide range of papers that were flowing in and out of the Secretary of State's office."

These had potentially included "transcripts of telephone conversations that the Prime Minister had with people in so far as they affected Northern Ireland, that these were potentially available as were potentially available minutes of meetings we ourselves had with the Prime Minister.

"The Government do not as yet know just how much of this intelligence was available to the republican movement.

"We do know that a wide range of material was obtained by illegal means by the republican movement.

"We believe this material was made available to the political leadership of Sinn Fein to give it an advantage in its dealings with us.

"That clearly undermines the basis of a continuing administration. It's also the sort of behaviour that was contemplated as unacceptable behaviour by the Government's announcements in July this year.

"At the time the Government said it was giving a yellow card to republicans. It said if these matters came to light it would be prepared to send to the Northern Ireland Assembly a motion calling for the expulsion of Sinn Fein from the administration."

After a meeting with the Irish Prime Minister in Dublin, Northern Ireland's nationalist Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan said allegations of republican wrongdoing had strengthened anti–Agreement unionists and made the collapse of the institutions more likely.

"At my meeting with the Taoiseach, we agreed that no matter what the changes of the Agreement must continue," the SDLP leader said.

"The projects on policing including the Policing Board as well as North–South matters must not be undone.

"Nothing should be allowed to set the Agreement back even if the institutions collapse.

"The Agreement must be the only agenda for all of us. Allegations of republican activity and the tactics of anti–Agreement unionists must not derail us."